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/ 

jiow QroWn and Prepared for JVCarl^et, 

With ;in explanation of the ))l;in of the Author's 




NEW TOBACCO CURING HOUSE. 

And an illustralion of its new system and method of curing tobacco, 1^ 

with full practical details of the Ppi 

Qrowiiig, Guping, ^tripping, ^ortiiig, Pacl^ing and ]VIarI^eting I'obacco. M 

From the experience of a. practical grower. Sjpjl 

PRICE 50 CENTS. (Copyrighted April 9, 1887, by N. Bruette.) K 



BANNER STEAM PRINTING HOUSE, Jefferson, Wis. 

^1 






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,S^^«.^i,^ 

jJoW QpoWn, Cured and Prepared for ]V[arl^et. 



INTRODUCTION. 

In presenting this treatise to' that portion of the puljlic interested directly 
in the matter of which it treats, I am not unmindful of the fact, that able and 
experienced persons, well informed upon all the details of the work of grow- 
ing tobacco, have written and published much of their experience and obser- 
vation for the instruction of those who have projxised to embark in the 
business, as a new pursuit, as also thoughts and suggestions for the consider- 
ation of those who have followed the business of growing tobacco. A debt of 
gratitude is due to those careful and observant growers, whose matured ex- 
perience has been furnished to the woi'ld, to the end that progress and im- 
pi'ovement should be stamped upon every year's growth of this important 
staple. In most of the pursuits of life, mankind seems imbued with a fatal 
tendency in each individual to cling to, and follow perverse notions or im- 
pulses, and a disinclination to profit by the wisdom and experience of others ; 
and 3-et mankind hails, with more or less enthusiasm, all attempts to enlight- 
en it, upon those subjects, that increase the pleasures and enjoyments of life, 
or that lessen its burdens. So, I gladly avail myself of the opportunity to 
acknowledge tlie obligations I am under to those pioneers in this branch of 
industry, who have given the world the benefit of the lessons they have 
learned, in the struggle with natural forces; for while the Creator has not 
barred man's h,and, from nature's deepest mysteries, it yet will yield them up, 
only to patient and thoughtful workers. I too have been a worker, 
and have had my sliare of failures, with some successes, in this field, and these 



TOBACCO HOW GROWN, CURED AND PREPARED FOR MARKET. 



I present to those who will study them. In the course of this work, I shall 
allude to some ideas, that have been advanced by others, which, I maintain, are 
unsound in principle, and not in accordance with natural laws, and that 
ought for those reasons to be abandoned. He who invokes nature to aid him, 
in the perfection cf his product, must be sure and follow where she leads, in 
the application of principles, to the details of his work. If he is careless, and 
blunders, or misapplies them, he will find his mistake in those defects, which 
he had sought to avoid. The mistakes in any one field of industry ought not 
to be duplicated, in these days of inquiry and of rapid spread ■ of intelligence. 
The errors ought soon to be found and dropped. 

And it is pleasant to know, that these are days of inquiry, and of research, 
and that only what is fit can survive. In the mass of information, from so 
many sources, respecting the work of growing a crop of tobacco, there is not 
very much difference of opinions ; reference being had of course, to the wide 
range of latitude, and of soil and climate, within which the plant is 
grown ; and whence emenate the various essays upon the subject. There are 
certain general principles, which will be applicable to all latitudes, and other 
principles, equally important, which require a knowledge and application 
more local in their character, and this will also apply to the varieties of 
tobacco grown in different localities. I could fairly content myself, to leave 
the subject of growing the crop, to rest on the information and practice, now 
prevailing, as in nothing which I shall say, will there be a very great 
departure from methods now pursued ; but as in a most serious and impoi'tant 
part of the business, of growing and preparing the crop for market, I shall 
attack the system and methods now prevailing, and strenuously and earnestly 
insist that they are wrong in principle, wasteful and illogical, and in reckless 
disregard of natural law ; and bring forward what can be shown to be a better 
way, it would seem to be best, that I should go over the entire field and point 
out, what has seemed to me, defective methods in all the stages of growing 
the crop. 

In presenting to toljacco growers, luy new tol)acco curing house, I do so, 
with the greatest confidence that it will meet all just expectations, provided 
only, they carefully observe the rules and instructions, which are laid down even 
to the minutest details, and which provide for any, and all climatic conditions, 
which can arise in any climate where tobacco will grow. Growers will un- 
derstand, without more being said, that these rules are adapted to this curing- 
house, and apply to no other, excepting a few general principles. All the 
details are essential, to the whole plan, and will surely bring out the desired 
result. I do not abate any confidence in the plan and method of this curing 
house, from the fact that it is a clear departure from old methods; tw-enty 
years of growing, and handling tobacco, and of careful study and experiment, 
and observation of the plant, and of the climatic conditions affecting its 
growth, ripening and curing, have satisfied me. that tlie immense commercial 



TOBACCO — HOW GROWN, CURED AND PREPARED FOR MARKET. 6 

importance of the product, demands for it a treatment and a method, more in 
accordance with well understood philosophical laws. This will be further illus- 
trated as I come to each successive step in the work, where the subject of 
curing the crop is dealt with, and the reasons for each and every suggestion 
or rule will be given. 

In the pursuit of my inquiries and experiments, I have from time to time 
found articles, upon tobacco growing and curing, in the N. E. Homestead, 
and in the Wisconsin Tobacco Reporter, that have furnished me valuable aid, 
in n*y work, and I desire to acknowledge my obligations for the same. In 
the line of their thought, and so far as they went, they are in the main 
sound and correct. The pressure of the necessity which I saw for both better 
results and how to obtain them have caused me to venture further ; and in 
pursuit of the idea I have constructed a large curing house, and have con- 
scientiously embodied into its plan the ideas as to the curing of tobacco which 
I present in this treatise ; and in order that I might be certain that they have 
a good foundation and to thoroughly and well test those ideas and principles, 
I filled it full of tobacco, and subjected it to the treatment which I advocate. 
The cured tobacco has been assorted and cased by experts and who have examined 
with careful scrutiny, in the sweat and after it had emerged from that trial. 
It has been handled and worked by experts in manufacture of leaf tobacco, 
and it more than vindicate;^ my curing house and its plan. The public has 
now all the facts and all persons who are interested can get them. And I be- 
lieve the time may be safely anticipated when we will note the disappear- 
ance of poor half cured tobacco from the market, and the terrors which have 
burdened the growers life will disappear with them. 

N. Beuett. 
Jefferson, Wis., January 5, 1887. 



TOBACCO — HOW c;rov>"n, cured and prepared for market. 



Giiapter I. 

SELECTION AND PREPARATION OF THE LAND. 

Information as to this part of the work might, in general terms, be 
sufficient for the beginner, but one who has had experience has been taught 
lessons which are better than oral ones, because written instructions are 
maxims, which saymg what to do and what not to, must yet be governed by the 
difference of conditions in different localities. I have, therefore, thought it better 
to describe my own field of ten acres, on which tobacco has been grown more 
oi- less for over twenty years, hoping thus to present to new beginners a better 
idea of favorable conditions, than I could hope to do in general directions. 
Its eastern side rises to upland, with a sandy clayish loam, resting on a reddish 
soft clay subsoil, and sloping to the west, onto bottom land, of black ^andy 
loam, resting on a common brick clay subsoil. This bottom comprising 
j:bout seven acres, is well drained with tile, there being about 150 
rods of tile laid in the seven acres; the mains being three Inch, the side 
branches being one and a half inch; a design in placing it, being to tap 
some springs, which were found to exist, below the surface, in areas of 
quick sand, along the base of the slope. Upon this field I have often grown 
a ton of seed leaf to the acre; and in the year 1873, I grew and weighed into 
the cases, 5,600 pounds of Connecticut seed leaf from two acres of that lower 
land, and sold it to Mr. Gaeger, of Philadelphia, in that bad time of low 
l)rices for eight cents a pound. In 1875 I abandoned seed leaf and am 
now growing Spanish, or Havana se6d, and the soil and locality seem equal- 
ly well suited to that variety, producing from ten hundred to fifteen hundred 
pounds to the acre. This is not the place to discuss tile draining, but I can- 
not forbear adding my testimony in its favor, and to give it the emphasis of 
experience, that it will improve the quality and increase the quantity of 
tobacco, in even the very best soils and localities. If your proposed field is 
xil)on bottom land, do not attempt tobacco before it is drained, for you will be 
disappointed. Tobacco will not thrive upon a soil from which the main part 
of the waterfall must be evaporated into the atmosphere, instead of through the 
subsoil, leaving the surface sour and hard and without life. Above all, avoid 
a hard pan for subsoil, no matter how rich the surface soil may be, it will 
defeat all the kind endeavors of sunshine or rain, supplemented by your toil, 
and I have examined fields of growinsf tobacco, where location and manurinsr 



TOBACCO — HOW GROWX, CUKED AND PRKPAKED FUK MAIIKET. 



and cultivation were all that could be desired, and yet in spite of all tliese, 
the plants were short, hard and woody, and early exhibited rust spots, and an en- 
tii-e want of generous growth; and upon examination, I have found such 
fields resting either upon a hard pan or sticky, gravelly, clay subsoil. It 
should be observed here, that upon almost any good soil, tobacco may be 
successfully grown, but the quality of the crop will be modified in thi.-; way. 
If your sandy loam has a slight mixture of clay loam, the grain of the leaf 
will be finer for it, while if sand alone, the fiber will be elastic, but the grain 
will be more open and coarser. The fine grained is the handsomer leaf, other 
things being equal, and care should therefore be exercised, to so locate the 
field, as w'ill secure the best results in these respects. 

Having located the field, it should be heavily manured and plowed in 
September ; should then have another dressing of manure, and plowed again 
about the first of November following. This will give the soil the benefit of 
the autumn rains, and the freezing, following the last plowing, will pulverize 
the clods and lumps, and render it light and porous, for the coming season. 
You may now leave the field to the winter forces, as they can do for it all 
that will be necessary for the growth of your crop. 

THE TOBACCO BEDS. 

These should be selected in the fall, in a spot sheltered from cold winds; 
and almost any soil, except clear sand, in a warm spot will do well. Spade 
the bed in the fall, in October or the first of November, and work in a liberal 
quantity of rich well rotted manure, make it mellow with the fork and rake, 
and leave it in just the shape you want it in the spring, and cover it with a 
thin coat of fine manure, compost, and it will be well if a large per cent, 
of this covering is hen manure. In the spring, as early as the ground can be 
worked, say about the last week of April, or first of May, rake off the 
covering of manure from your beds, and with fork and rake, make the 
surface of the soil as fine and mellow as it is possible, about two or three 
inches deep, not more, and having prepared your seed, as hereafter shown, 
sow it on this warm mellow surface. Having done so, take a short narrow- 
board and place it upon the bed, and put your weight upon it, and pressing 
it down, as much as is possible, moving the board about the bed so that its 
wdiole surface has been pressed down even. Do not do this work hastily, 
liut with care, laying your board lengthwise and crosswise of the bed, to 
insure a covering of all the seeds sown. 

In ordinary loamy soil, this manner of covering the seeds is all they will 
bear, as the seed is so small that there is danger of burying so deep that it 
will not sprout, or if it should succeed in forcing its way out, it will appear 
so late that the early sprouted will so overshadow it that it can not get such a 
hold of the soil, as will produce a healthy plant, available for planting. It 
is desirable that all or nearly all the seeds should germinate at about the same 



6 TOBACCO — HOW GROWN, CURED AND PREPARED FOR MARKET. 



time. There will be a few days difference, in their growth, in any event, 
and this will keep your bed productive during the planting season. 

The best way to sow the seed, is to first determine how much you need, 
then take a quantity of leached ashes, or partly leached, about one quart to 
each . tablespoonf ul of seed, first thoroughly sifting the ashes, to put out all 
lumps, then placing the ashes in a pan, smooth down the surface and scatter 
the seed over the ashes as evenly as possible, then mix all together with your 
hands, put it all through your sieve, once or twice, that the seed may be evenly 
distributed through the mass. When that is done, scatter it all upon your pre- 
pared bed, being still careful to have it evenly distributed over the beds. 
There are other substances like rotten wood or leaf mold, that may be used 
in place of ashes, only see that it is pulverized and free from lumps, as they 
wall carry down too many seeds, and the plants will come up in clusters and 
be wasted. 

It is important to a beginner, that he should be informed as to the 
reasons of these rules, wdiich are given him, and I proceed now to state them. 
The preparing of the seed bed in the autumn, gives time for the rains and 
snows to settle the ground, and absorb the strength of the manure; and lumps 
and clods will fall to pieces, and" form a good body of prepared soil beneath 
the plants, which will hold moisture, stored for their use when growth begins. 
The shallow preparation of the surface, in the spring, is because you do not 
want long tap roots to your plants, but instead a thick clump of fibrous roots, 
close about the base of the stalk. Such a plant, set in a well made hill, with 
moist soil will not only live, but it will imme,diately begin its growth, and it 
will continue through a protracted drought, until maturity. The surface 
of the bed being well worked, warm and rich, the plant finds sufiicient food 
and will not send down its tap root into the colder and harder soil below. 
Whereas, if the bed is made deep and mellow, the tap root will push down into 
it, and control the growth, which will be a long tap root growth, and when 
transplanted into the field it will be the same character of growth there, and 
will dominate and determine the kind of leaf which the plant will bear. It 
is now well understood that a fine leaf must be grown from the surface soil. 
that is soil that is stirred by the cultivator and hoe, into which 
the warm sun penetrates every hour of the day, and which is moistened by 
every shower of rain, and upon which the dew falls. The leaf from such a 
growth will be thin, and of delicate texture, both in the blade and in the 
veins. The sub-soil, or the lower part of the surface soil, can contribute 
nothing of value to such a leaf. That lower soil will grow nothing, but a 
thick woody leaf, with large prominent veins, and such you do not want. The 
plant should be furnished with an abundance of those small surface root-!^, 
and these should be set out in surface soil. 

The plant bed should be placed east and west, and a barricade of boards 
should be put up along the north side, to shelter it from cold winds, unless it 



TOBACCO HOW GROWN, CURED AND PREPARED FOR MARKET. 



is made along the south side of a building or other structure, which is better. 
One large tablespoonful of good seed is sufficient for 150 square feet, or say 
a bed thirty feet long and five feet in width. 

Having now done your work well, so far, you must not relax your vigilance. 
The bed must be covered with some substance that will keep the surface 
from drying out, and protect the germinating seeds from cold winds. I have 
used marsh hay for a covering, and it has answered a good purpose, and is free 
from seeds, but it is some work to put it on and take it oflP ; old carpets will do, 
so will corn stalks. These all cost nothing, but the best covering is cheap 
cotton cloth, sufficient length, doubled to cover your bed, sew two edges to- 
gether, tack a thin stick to each of the other edges ; your cover is now ready 
for use. That your plant bed may be protected from too much sun and dry- 
ing wind, and at the same time prevent the freezing, which would destroy 
the germinating seeds, there should be a space of from four to six inches be- 
tween the cloth cover and the ground. This air chamber will be always 
warmer than outside, and will retain the moisture, so essential in the surface 
of the bed, especially until the seeds are well sprouted, and until such time 
the cover should be kept on the bed, excepting when a warm gentle rain falls 
it may be removed, and allow the bed to be well wet down, when it should be 
again covered; and this practice should continiie until you can see that they 
are getting hold of the soil, when the cover should be removed permanently, 
only to be put on when a frost is impending, or threatens frost. The bed at 
such time should be covered without fail, as a frost would destroy your en- 
tire work. To put the bed in good shape, to be well protected by this cloth 
covering, place some common fence boards on edge along the sides, and across 
the ends of the beds ; a few slight stakes, driven in the ground, will hold them 
iu place. Then lay your cloth along on one side of the bed, the sticks to 
which it is tacked resting on the pieces of board at the end of the bed, and 
supported in the middle by a short board laid across the bed, and its ends 
resting on the side pieces. Then carry the other stick, with its edge of the 
cover, and place it on the other side ; roll your stick, and draw your cloth 
straight, so that it shall not sag down upon the bed. When you wish to ex- 
pose the bed to the sun or rain, carry one of these pieces across to the other side, 
rolling it so as to gather the cloth up from the bed. Such a covering will 
last several years, if taken up when done using it, and put away carefully. If 
the surface of the bed should become dry at any time, before the plants are 
well up, sprinkle it with water that has stood several hours in the sun, and 
put on the cover, and continue to do so every day until a shower of rain shall 
relieve you from that duty. The plant bed may now be left to take care of 
itself, excepting in the contingencies mentioned, and being on the alert for 
cold nights. 



O TOBACCO HOW GROWN, CURED AND PREPARED FOR MARKER. 

PREPARING THE FIELD. 

After plowing, and dragging the tobacco ground, there intervenes a time 
in wdiich you may plant the corn and potatoes, or do other work. About 
the 20th of May, again plow the tobacco ground, and drag it well until it is 
mellow, and the chunks are all broken and fine ; put on the roller or any 
other machine, and work it until there are no lumps remaining. It wdll be 
remembered that we have placed our field on new soil that has never grown 
tobacco, and it must Ije well civilized, before tobacco will take kindly to it. 
What I mean 1 ly civilizing if. is to work it, and stir it with plow and drag, and 
other implements, until the sun and rain have touched all its particles ; for it 
is upon them the plant must feed ; it can get nothing from ugly lumps Ijdng 
about the field. Having done that work in a thorough manner, you must 
now consider this proposition : If the land upon which you have placed the 
field is naturally rich, or has been made so by wash from other fields, or from 
your judicious management of it, and you have manured it, as I have advised, 
it will grow and mature a large crop of tobacco ; the stalks will be large, and 
the leaves long, and in that case your rows north and south, should be wide 
apai-t. Under all those circumstances, those rows should be thirty-six inches 
apart, and these should be crossed by rows running east and west, twenty 
inches apart. The rows must be straight, even at the expense of much 
time and trouble, as such care will be more than compensated by the ease and 
facility it affords in cultivation, Ijesides the damage which is unavoidable to 
plants standing out and in from their row. The straight rows will also afford 
you pleasure, whereas the crooked ones are a constant irritation and annoy- 
ance. If your soil is not so rich as all those conditions would warrant, and 
you propose to grow Spanish, I should plant north and south rows tliirty 
inches apart and twenty inches the other way. There are many reasons why 
this plan is best: it is no object to place your rows so close that you will be 
compelled to stop the cultivator when the crop is only half grown, leaving 
the remainder of the cultivation to be done with the hoe, which is too slow 
and costly. By planting in the w^ay described, the cultivator may be run both 
ways. The narrow way until the plants have reached good size, and will them- 
selves do something towards keeping the weeds down, say about three or four 
times : and then stop cultivating that way, but continue it the wide way so 
long as you can get a horse and cultivator through without damage to the 
]ilants. This ought to be up to about or near the time of topping, as when 
that is done there will be a very rapid growth of leaf, and the hoeing must be 
done with great care to avoid breaking the leaves, and the cultivator must be 
laid aside. If the rows are too close much damage will be done while suckering, 
which is unavoidable, as the workmen must pass between the rows, and the 
tobacco will also lack body, and be deficient in gum, although it will be fine 
and silky. If planted too open, it will be thick and heavy, with prominent 
veins, but will have good body and plenty of gum, and weigh w^ell when 



TOBACCO — HOW GROWN, CURED AND PREPARED FOR MARKET. y' 

stripped. A little experience will enable each careful grower to settle all 
these questions very nearly to his best interest. I have seen a field prepared 
in a very handsome manner, by running the desired rows, with a plow or 
marker, and the men with hoes crossed those lines at the width desired, and 
made the hills the other way, measuring by the eye as they reached each line, 
and the work was nicely done; but they must be practiced and careful men 
who do it. In any way that you can secure the best and straightest rows, now 
proceed to make a small hill at the point where the lines cross, bringing into 
it about two or three times what an ordinary hoe will bring, making hill 
about three inches high, and pressing it down with the back of the 
hoe. This will make the hill plana to be seen, and prevent its drying out. Be 
careful and keep all lumps and straw, and stuff of every kind, out of the hill, 
for the plant will only catch quick, and thrive when well planted in clean 

soil. 

The hills being well made, as directed, you are ready to. begin transplanting,, 
when your plants are large enoiigh to be drawn, and in the next chapter L 
will point out the way that I have found to be the best to plant tobacco. 



10 TOBAC:CO HOW GROWN, CURED AND PREPARED FOR MARKET. 



Chapter 11. 

The transplanting of any kind of transferable plant would not seem to 
be a difficult thing to do, and yet there is much of that work badly done. 
There are but few parts of the w^ork of growing tobacco that will better reward 
good judgment and care, than planting of the field. It is of first importance 
to have the plants even, as to size and in the quantity of roots, so that when 
all are equally placed' in the soil, they shall all start together, for if large 
stocky plants are placed along side of small weak ones the latter will surely 
be left behind and the field will be uneven. The plants then should be care- 
fully lifted out of the bed, leaving small and weak ones to harden and stock 
up, which they wall do in a short time, after the bed is thinned out. The best 
way, I have found, to take plants from the bed is to drench the bed well with 
water ; this will loosen the roots, and the plant may be lifted out easily and 
quickly by taking it between the thumb and fingers, close to the ground. The 
roots are not broken, but come out whole, and being straightened out, are in 
good position to place in the hill. If there are places in the bed where the 
plants are very thick together, they should be first thinned out by drawing 
the befit and putting them in the field. This will give the beds a start, and the 
growth will be rapid, and the spindling plants will soon be strong, and ready 
to take their places in the field. The beds should be ready to yield a good 
supply of plants by the 25th of May, and you should be ready, and know 
where your help is, so that when a shower of rain comes you may make a be- 
ginning and put your beds in good condition for more extensive planting. If 
you do not get showers in the last week in May, I advise that you pull the 
largest plants, and set a few hundred every evening, even if they are watered 
in. In that case the bed should be sprinkled, where you have lifted plants that 
the soil may be carried back to the roots of the plants, where it has been dis- 
turbed. If your curing house is in the field, or adjoining it, your first setting 
should be near and about it, as those plants will need to be first cut to enable 
you to move about the building. 

Such a plant bed as I have described, will furnish 15,000 plantsby the 10th 
of June. If you plant the close way, which I have described, it will require 
7000 plants to the acre. To be sure of having a plenty of good plants, you should 
have one such bed, for every acre that you propose to put out. If you plant the 
wide way, it will require about one thousand less. When the shower you 
have been looking for comes and wets the ground, then gather your working 



TOBACCO HOW CiROWN, CURED AND PREPARED FOR MARKET. 1 1 

force for planting. Set the most careful and pains-taking one of your help, 
to pull the plants, as they are lifted, care should be taken to let all small ones 
remain in the ground, if as often happens, small weak ones are taken up 
with the large ones, they should not be taken to the field, but should be thrown 
away, otherwise some of them will get in the hills. As I have already de- 
scribed the way to pull plants, T need only add that the plants should all be 
laid straight, in a common market basket, which is handy for that purpose, 
and also to distribute from; the tops should be all one way, and the leaves 
kept clean, and not broken. A careful boy can drop them, one plant to a 
hill and take three rows, and the setters should follow him at once, and set 
them in the ground. There are certain principles that ought to be observed 
in setting out tobacco plants. First, the plant must have a good hold of the 
soil, if not it will tip to one side or the other, and will be bruised and torn 
by the horse and cultivator, on the other hand if too deep, with a long root, 
all its growth will be from too low a stratta of soil, from which a fine leaf 
cannot be grown. If the hill is well made there need be neither of these 
extremes. The long tap roots, if any, should be pinched off to two or three 
inches. 

Take the plant in the left hand, with the three fingers of the right hand 
make an opening in the center of the hill, about an inch deep, place the root 
in this opening, and press it down with the finger into the soil this should 
In-ing the plant erect where it is to stand, with the base of the stalk a little 
above the surface. Then put fingers of both hands in the soil, near the plant, 
and press the soil downward hard, and press lightly towards the plant. This 
will carry the crown a little below the surface, where it should be. Do not 
disturb the soil more than is necessary, for these movements. Having, as it 
were, grasped the ground enclosing the plant, with the fingers of both hands, 
give it a quick pressure downwards and leave it. I am satisfied from long 
experience and observation that this is the best way to set, to insure a cpick 
start and firm hold. The practice of running the finger down in the hill to 
make a hole, and working the long root down into it, is altogether bad; 
sometimes a sharp stick is used for that purpose. You may depend upon it, 
that a large proportion of these holes are deeper, than those who make them 
think or intend, and the lower part of it is not closed, and the root is swing- 
ing around, in a vacant place, and not touched by any soil. It will further 
I)e found that the plant, while being loose about the bottom of the root; where 
it should be tight pressed, is pinched at the crown, where it ought to be free. 
Plants set in such a manner, may struggle along, and perhaps if it is favorable 
weather, may survive such treatment and live, but the chances are against 
them. Upon entering upon the work, the owner should call together those 
who are to set plants, and show them how to do it well, and watch their 
work, and see that it is done as he directs ; follow the setters, and take hold 



12 TOBACCO — HOW GROWN, CURED AND PREPARED FOi: MARKET. 



of the leaves of plants, and see if they do not come out of the hill by a licrht 
pull upward, if they do, the person who so places them should Ije sharply re- 
buked, and if persisted in, should be sent out of the field or put at other 
work. 

Finish the planting, and go in the tobacco field with a good horse, and 
a cultivator with eight or ten small shovels, and run between the rows first, 
the wide way. Do not go too close to the hill, as the plant should not be dis- 
turbed : having gone through both ways go in with hoes. This work rec|uires 
great care and should be only surface work, about the hill, to loosen the 
crust, and bring a little fresh dirt, to fill any cavities in the hill, and you 
will find that the plant will promptly respond, if you do it well. Having 
finished the hoeing, the field may be left for a week. At the end of that time, 
their fresh and vigorous looks will indicate that the plants have got hold of 
the soil, and thenceforth their growth will be rapid; and once a week the 
field should be cultivated, and after the second cultivation should be again 
hoed. After that your cultivation will most likely be confined to the wide 
rows. The hillers should be put on behind, and run close to the hills, moving 
the soil close up to the plant, and turning up and covering the small weeds. 
If a heavy rain should come, soon after you have been through the field with 
the cultivator, so soon as the surface is dry enough, the field should be again 
cultivated in order that the air and sun may reach the soil all about the 
plant roots, which they cannot do if a crust is allowed to form over the 
surface of the ground, which will be the case with most soils. 

After the first cultivation the tobacco worm will put in his appearance, 
and they must be hunted diligently, and exterminated while they are small, 
as they are voracious eaters, and liegin their damaging work early. They 
will be found on the under side of the leaf, and are so near of the color of 
the leaf, that it requires sharp eyes to see them ; bright active boys or girls, 
ten or twelve years of age, are good help at this work, if in charge of an 
older person to direct them. 



TOBACCO HOW GROWN, CURED AND PREPARED FOR MARKET. 13 



Chapter III. 

TOPPING, SUCKERING AND CUTTING. 

There is a great variety of opinion as to the best time to top tobacco, 
reference being had of course to its growth. Among the intelligent growers 
there is now but one opinion, as to topping high or low. It is now top lo^Y, 
and that point may be considered as settled. During the years that I was 
growdng seed leaf, I considered the subject carefully, and tried experiments 
in topping diflPerent plants, that were apparently about equal in growth and 
maturity, taking the tops from some plants just as the top was well out, top- 
ping others a week or so later and still others after the blossom was out. 
There was not the difference in the time of ripening that I expected. The 
plants topped after blossoming, did not seem to make so much growth of 
leaf as those topped earlier. The latter grew large top leaves, larger than any 
to be found on the late topped, but the most notable difference appeared 
after they were all cured out. The early topped plants had leaves that were 
much more elastic than the late topped, had more gum, and were equally as 
fine in texture and color. Reason, analogy, the law of plant life, support 
the theory of early topping, and I am satisfied it is best. To indicate to a new 
beginner, just that period; is not so easy. When you stand at the side of the 
field, and looking over it, distant as well as near to you, and see on all sides 
that the heads are out, then begin your topping; probably in that part of the 
field where you set first. This is the best description which I can give of the 
proper condition of the field, and I believe the beginner may act upon it 
without danger of making a serious mistake. About twelve to fourteen 
leaves should be left to mature, not counting the small sand leaves, near the 
ground; they should be left in the field. That is a good field of tobacco, in 
which every stalk yields twelve ripened leaves. A very strong heavy plant 
will mature fourteen leaves, but it wdll be found after all are cured that the 
two top leaves of the latter plant will not compare for fineness with the 
leaves of the other plant topped low^er. Speaking in a commercial 
sense, the twelve leaves of the one plant are worth as much 
money as the fourteen leaves of the other plant. The grower can draw all 
needed inferences from these facts. The persons employed in topping should 
crush the bud which will appear at the base of the upper leaf, this will set 
liack, and retard the growth of a sucker, at that place. These suckers will 
push forward, at a rapid rate, after the tops are broken, and diligent work 



14 TOBACCO HOW GROWN, CURED AND PREPARED FOR MARKET. 

will be required to keep them broken ofp. They must not be allowed to grow 
as that will lose you all the advantage which was sought in breaking off the 
tops. Be careful and put the broken tops and suckers on the ground and not 
on the leaves. During all of the work of suckering and topping, as well as in 
the hoeing, one point should be steadily kept in mind, that is to kill worms. 
It is bad policy to wait and find them by the aid of the big holes they have 
eaten in the leaves. It is better to extinguish him when he is small. 
HARVESTING THE CROP. 

When your tobacco is ripe, it tells you almost in words; and yet some 
experience is needed, in order to understand its language. If you take a 
green leaf, fresh from the stalk, and only approaching its maturity, and 
place it along side of a leaf fully ripe ; an intelligent person, unacquainted 
with tobacco, would have no difficulty in selecting the ripe leaf. The ripe 
tobacco leaf then appears ripe, and when I have indicated a few points in the 
appearance of the leaf, which always accompany that condition, the new 
grower has all that can help him except actual experience. Your field, 
planted by these rules, if it has done well, about the middle of August will 
put on a matured look, which a farmer, used to observing the phenomena 
of nature, cannot wholly mistake. The ripening will begin at the point of the 
leaf ; if you raise that up with your hand, you will discover a roughness of the 
leaf at the point, and diverging each way, along the edge of the leaf; and pale 
yellow spots, or a fading out of the green, will be found in this rough surface, and 
the whole leaf will appear mottled, and thickened. These are signals for 
you to put your house in orier, and l)e prepared to take the crop into the 
curing house. 

CUTTING UP THE CROP. 

The cutting down of green tobacco stalks, with an axe, may seem to most 
persons to be very easy, and therefore a very proper thing to do. The work, 
to such persons, would not appear to be very much different from cutting up 
corn stalks, and so many well informed tobacco growers use about the same 
implement for cutting up both corn and tobacco, and often the two crops are 
handled in a manner very similar. If an inexperienced person, of a clever 
and thoughtful turn of mind, were to be informed that the money to com- 
pensate the farmer for his outlay upon the tobacco crop must come, if at all, 
from the sound leaves, all other leaves not more than paying the cost of handling 
after curing, he would be likely to say, without much hesitation, that the 
present practice most in vogue, of cutting tobacco with a small axe, is as coarse 
and unskillful as could well be devised. It is not possible to carry on that 
kind of work in a tobacco field, without great damage being done to the to- 
bacco. The swinging of those chopping-hatchets in the midst of the stand- 
ing tobacco is an incongruous spectacle, to say the least, and when we remem- 
ber how the leaves spread out on every side and cover the ground, and how 
easily they are broken, and that holes will be found in spite of the greatest 



TOBACCO — HOW GROWN, CURED AXD PREPARED FOR MARKET. 15 



care, the sight makes one shudder; for it is well known that the tobacco 
field is full of imps of one form or another, to do plenty of damage, and it is 
strange that a tobacco grower, knowing these things, should thus re-inforce 
these imps by an organized raid of the kind. I used these hatchets for a time, 
liecause I read in a treatise on tobacco growing, that they are the best im- 
plement for that purpose, but I abandoned them, for I saw on every hand the 
mischief they did, even if the blow was not intercepted by the leaves, the shock 
rarely failed to break or drop one or more. 

The very best tool for cutting tobacco is a small, stiff-backed saw about 
ten inches long with fine teeth. The reasons why it is the best are numerous, 
l)ut it will be sufficient to state some of the more important ones here. The 
saw being held in the hand, when not in use, is dropped down close to the 
leg and when used is never raised up, but slips from its place, under the leaves 
and never through nor amongst them. It is then turned flat wise, close to the 
ground, and the motion in cutting the stalk is too slight to even jar the plant; 
four inhes of the saw blade will cut off the largest stalk. The saw comes 
back to its place under the leaves. When the stalk is cut a careful hand 
must lay it down upon the row where it grew. This is the way the saw is 
used m my field. Going to the side of the field opposite the wind, take hold of 
the stalk, about one-third the way down, and press it a little to the left. 
Don't ram it into the other row, nor wrestle it around, but press gently, so as 
to give the stalk a slight spring ; a very light push then on the saw will carry 
it through the stalk. Don't drop the plant, but lift it gently away from the 
other plants, carry a little to the rear and, with a quick motion forward, to 
straighten out the leaves, lay it down, butt towards the field, this will leave 
your plant with the leaves all straight, instead of being doubled up and 
crushed, as is too often done. Don't run the saw in the ground, but lay it 
flat and cut close to the surface. All these movements are slow and method- 
ical, as they should be, in the tobacco field. The stump being cut low down 
and square, there will not be any sharp points or jagged edges to pierce the 
plant, as it is laid down ; besides it is easier going about the field. It is well 
known that the slant cut of the hatchet always leaves a sharp stub above the 
surface of the ground, upon which the leaves of the cut stalks must lie. They 
can't help cutting and piercing the leaves. If, to avoid leaving that sharp 
stub, the operator aims his blow lower down, he makes it woi-se, for then the 
axe will strike the bottom of the stalk, which is nearly as hard as oak, and two 
or three blows are necessary to sever it; and often then the stalk comes off, 
with pieces of broken stalk and roots, which will continue to do damage, un- 
til the leaves are taken off, and they are thrown out doors. This kind of 
rough work, in the field, will demoralize the force at work, and it will not be 
possible to enforce the needed care on their part, and finally the grower will 
himself become demoralized. There is a theory of cutting tobacco with a 
hatchet, so as to avoid the damage and injury I have mentioned, but the 
practice is widely different, as thousands of tobacco fields can attest. 



16 TOBACCO HOW GP.OWK, CUKED AND PREPARED FOR MARKET. 



Chapter iV. 



The practical details of growing a crop of tobacco were lirought clown in 
Tthe last chapter to the tobacco cut down and lying upon the ground. In the 
present chapter will be discussed the best way to hang tobacco, reference only 
Jjeing had to hanging on sticks or otherwise. The matter to be discussed be- 
ing connected wholly with the cui-ing of the crop, makes it the proper place 
to bring forward my new tobacco curing house and present it to the tobacco 
.growers. I do this with pleasure and the greatest confidence that it will vin- 
dicate all that I have claimed for it. This tobacco curing house is not resting 
on mere theory or abstractions, it is a practical thing, resting on a sound base 
<)f science and only obeys and makes available those natural laws which are 
invoked to aid the work of curing the tobacco, but which are nullified liy the 
bungling contrivances of what are called tobacco sheds, and all the theories 
upon which my curing house is designed and planned are strictly in accord- 
ance with all the natural laws of plant life, and those climatic agencies, upon 
which we rely to perfect the work of curing tobacco, and the actual tests of 
its work, cannot be set aside, by ancient practices however venerable. I have 
thought it best, with a view to a clear understanding of what it is, that we 
propose to do with our crop of tobacco, to explain my views of the plant, and 
what is needed in a perfect curing house. 

THE CURING HOUSE. 

In order that it shall be worthy of the name, it ought to embody principles 
which have something to do with the work. It should not attempt to over- 
come the forces upon Avhich the excellence of its work depends, but to work in 
harmony with them by its appliances and fixtures, thus making all conditions 
of climate do its work. A building so planned and constructed will not leave 
the grower to be baffled by fickle changes of wind, or adverse climatic condi- 
tions, but compels them all to aid him in bringing out the best results possible 
with the crop stored in the building. Armed with such;appliances, his intel- 
ligence rises superior to all conditions and controls them. When the dangers 
of the growing and harvesting season are passed, the tobacco grower, so sorely 
tried, oiight to have rest and not be driven to frenzy by the terrors which 
breed in the curing house, supplementing his summer of toil and anxiety with 
ieaj-f ul days and sleepless nights throxigh the agony of the curing season. 



TOBACCO — HOW GROWN, CURED AND PREPARED FOR MARKET. 17 

This has been too long the experience of all tobacco growers. Happily for 
him all seasons are not bad, but his anxiety is the same, and nothing can rid 
I him of it, excepting he is armed and equipped for whatever may come. 

I In the domain of agriculture the tobacco grower becomes in an acceptable 
j sense a fine worker. More than any other must he have a quick sense of all 
those mysterious laws to which he appeals, and he must keep himself and his 
efforts strictly in the path wdiich nature travels, and not depart from it. 
Nature does not bungle her work, and she will toil side by side with the true 
and devout in spirit and bring the fairy fingers that will fill out the work for 
them with delicate texture and paint it in gorgeous colors. 

The following propositions, which I lay down, ought to be axioms with the 
tobacco grower : 

1st. The tobacco plant ought not to go into the cured state before it is 
thoroughly ripened. 

2d. Dried tobacco is not necessarily cured tobacco, not even if it has 
taken on color and responds to changes in the atmosphere. Its body is green 
and must remain so, to the loss of color and quality, hence follows : 

3d. The tobacco leaf should never be allowed to dry or shrivel up, until 
it is first ripe, then cured, because the green leaf once dried cannot be re- 
stored to its former condition. It cannot resume the ripening process, which 
has been ari-ested, but it must remain green. 

The drying of the leaf means also a drying of all the sap in the leaf. All 
the channels through which the leaf receives sap from the stalk and stem are 
by this drying closed up. Thereafter there can be no circulation and it is of 
no avail that;the leaf may be softened by a damp atmosi^hex-e; it can go no 
further than to slightly improve the color. It is well understood by growers 
that when the tobacco plant is cut down it is not ripe, but only begun its rip- 
ening. It would be impracticable to leave the field standing until the plants 
were wholly ripe, and that is not desirable if it could be done, because the 
ripening process, fairly underway in the field, can be better completed in a 
properly constructed curing house. The plant then, when taken to the house, 
is full of rich sap in the stalk, stem and leaf in full circulation. This saj) 
the very best of its whole growth, is rich in all the elements of gum, aroma 
and color, and the perfection of the leaves requires it all. To arrest this circula- 
tion, at about midway of the curing, is a gross violation of natural law, and 
the result is a green-dried leaf with hard, woody veins. The blade of the leaf 
will be shrunken, and thereby all the veins are strung with hard little kinks, 
that even a very high case will fail to soften. The curing of the tobacco leaf 
is a natural process, not an artificial one. Like its growth, it has all necessary 
provision for that result, if not baffled by the meddling and awkward contriv- 
ances of man. The leaf so having reasonable treatment, itself puts on its 
gorgeous, high-tawny color ; its fiber is strong, fine and elastic. The veins will 
be matured and cured precisely as the blade is cured. They will have what 



18 TOBACCO — HOW GROWX, CURED AXD PREPARED FOR MARKET. 

may properly be called a finished appearance, being compact, smooth, glossy, 
and soft, and are pliable in any condition of weather that will soften the blade, 
and will inainly lie of the same color, sometimes a, trifle darker than the 
blade. 

Although I might rest my third proposition here, I cannot forbear going 
a little fui'ther with this subject, as it will he seen to be of vital importance. 
The curing house makes about the same difference in the cured leaves, as the 
planting and soil and cultivation will make in the green leaf, for all know 
that a highly manured soil, well cultivated and kept warm and mellow, will 
grow a finer leaf than a new, rich, untamed soil, with slack cultivation, the 
growth then being open to these several conditions, influencing and governing 
the quality of the product. So with the curing of the leaf, for both are natural 
processes and require favoralile conditions in one case as in the other. 

I have said that in the cut tobacco stalk there are all the elements of beauty, 
fineness and rich aroma. There is also in the same stalk all the elements of 
sourness, heat, poison gasses, rottenness and decay. When man takes the 
plant from the field into his custody, and attempts to direct the influences 
which are to crown his work, he should see to it that he conforms to natural 
laws in his treatment of it. The vegetable, like the animal, is susceptible to 
the poison of bad gasses and foul air, and, like the animal under it, will lay 
down and die. 

4th. Taking the tobacco stalk with all its possibilities of beauty and 
value, and of rottenness and decay, it is nian's duty and interest to see 
that the outcome shall not be a matter of doubt and u.ncertainty, for man's 
intellect ought to dominate simple natural forces and make them serve his 
purpose. 

5th. A current of air ought not to be allowed to pass through the hang- 
ing tobacco, except for a few minutes at a time, and then at such time 
and only in such manner as shill he necessary to change the air in the curing 
house, and only for that purpose. 

Having already said as much as I care to say at this time upon the 4th 
proposition, I proceed to give my views upon the 5th proposition, and the rea- 
soning on which I rest it. I do not forget that this proposition is a direct 
attack upon the opinions and methods of the great body of tobacco growers, 
many of them with years of experience in growing and curing tobacco. The 
methods of men of course reflect their opinions on those subjects; but there is 
much yet to be learned about all human affairs, and one thing learned meana 
the overthrow of some one old idea that when once cast aside men look at it 
with shame and humiliation that it had been allowed to control them so long. 
Tn other words, when men see a new and cleai-ly a better way in any of life's 
affairs, they are struck with astonishment that it had not been, found out 
before. 



TOBACCO HOW GROWN, CURED AND PREPARED FOR MARKET. 19 



A tobacco curing house will always be full of air, make it so tight as is 
possible. The air will be there, no matter what else is in it, and 
that is all the curing tobacco rec[uires. But in a building full of 
green tobacco, there is an enormous quantity of poisonous gas, thrown off 
from the curing mass, so much so, that to enter and remain a few miniites in 
such a place would endanger life. In a properly planned curing house, there 
will be a way provided by which this foul air may be quickly taken out of 
the building, and its place supplied with fresh, pure air from outside; but 
neither in carrying off the bad air, nor admitting the fresh, should there be a 
perceptible current in the building; and in the most critical stages of the cur- 
ing, the change should be made in a few minutes of time. A current of air 
through the building thereafter only makes damage and loss. We have seen 
that the stalk is filled with sap, which it is desirable shall be utilized in finish- 
ing the texture of the leaf, coloring it in its own native hues, and laying in 
the ripened and cured gum for its delicate aroma ; some of the constituents of 
this gum are volutile in their nature, and the valuable part of it will escape in 
the current of air, if it is allowed to course freely through the building. These 
constituents cover the leaves with that beautiful gloss, which is so much admired ;. 
if allowed to be |ibsorbed from the leaves during the curing time and carried 
off by currents of air. the leaf, however fine its texture and color, will be paperish 
to the touch and unyielding and wholly wanting in style. In flavor also it will 
want the substance and aroma which only the gum, which has been carried away, 
can give it. The loss in weight would be imperceptible to the senses, but if 
growers could see the aggregate of pounds of the richest part of the tobacco, 
which is carried off by the wind having access to the curing tobacco, they 
would be startled in every section where tobacco is grown. It is well known 
that in all uses and places a current of air means absorption and drying, and 
that is a sufficient reason why it has no business in a tobacco curino- house, 
for we neither want the juices in our tobacco plants absorbed or dried, but 
rather we want it there to fill out the place intended for it and so finish the 
economies of nature. 

In tobacco journals published at several tobacco centers, the question of how 
to cure tobacco has been well discussed ; and many ideas of great value to 
growers upon this question, have been promulgated ; but in all that I have 
ever seen written upon that subject, there has been a lack of discernment of 
the true principles underlying the subject, and a failure to grasp all the 
theory and the details, and the writers make it painfully apparent that 
they realize there are mysterious forces which they do not comprehend, 
and not feeling sure of their footing, dare not grapple with them. Hence 
they teach in generalities, avoiding as far as possible explanation, and putting 
questions that they do not understand out of sight. The scholar goes just 
so far as the teacher goes, and learns in course of time, that the whole business 
of growing is frightful with doubt and uncertainty. It is possible that the 
Creator might have established a way and manner whereby the secrets of na- 



20 TOBACCO — HOW GKOWN, CURED AND PREPAP.ED FOR MARKET. 



ture might be easier found and brought into man's use with less of toil of 
brain ; but we know that he has not, and w^e also know that it is best as it is- 
^So man must proceed with his work, and grope and stumble, but he may be com- 
pensated if he will come close to nature in the home where her fairy workers 
abide. These teachers of whom I have spoken in the respect of ventilating the to- 
bacco shed, advise that the shed be not opened too much, lest the wind dry the 
tobacco too fast or break it when dried or throw it ofp the bearings, or do 
other damage. They speak of what they call the critical time when the to- 
liacco grower must have nerve to carry it to the outer verge. This is under- 
stood to mean the time between the ripening or maturing of the hanging 
plants, and the change of color which will begin soon after: and the idea is 
to hold the plant in that condition and compel a slow coloring, with a view to 
the complete circulation of the juices of the plant through the veins and blade 
"of the leaf. The main idea is correct, but the application of the principle 
M3ught to begin when the plant is first hung in the curing house. Some waiters 
■ call this holding back a choking 2»'0cess to force a high color in the leaf. The 
ohief fault to be found with this is that while it aims after desirable re- 
sults, it is misleading and far shdrt of an understanding of the true way to 
reach them. As has been already shown, the ripening and curing are natural 
processes and do not require any extraordinary nerve. Neither do they need 
any choking process nor holding back, except such as should be applied to tht- 
entii-e term of curing. To say to the grower, as some do, that he must have 
courage to hold his tobacco up to the verge of damage by rot or shed-burn 
before he lets it ofP into full color if he would have rich, high color in the en- 
tire leaf is erroneous as to the nature of the influence at work and misleading 
-as to their management. 

These writers upon tobacco culture have done much to advance the work 
rand improve it. They have gained glimpses of the curious processes in the 
putting on of color, but they stop short of making a full discovery, and I am 
jPersuaded that the ideas of proper curing of tobacco, as presented by them, 
discloses more their aspiration and knowledge of the want of better facilities 
for carrying out correct ideas. That is , they have made better progress in a 
knowledge of what is desired than in the applicances devised to bring it 
about. 

I have, therefore, the greatest confidence that all such persons who are ad- 
vanced in the culture and curing of tobacco will be the most ready to see the 
adaptation of my plan and the certain facility which it will afford, to bring the 
art of curing tobacco up to what has long l)een desired. 

At the present time I will say nothing more upon this subject of curing to- 
Ijacco, as in that part of the work, in which I bring forward for ilkistration^ 
my new curing house, I shall have occasion in explaining its appliances, fix- 
tures and various devises to speak more in detail on that subject, in connection 
with the parts of the plan, which take in the curing for their intent and pur- 
jjose. In a plan of machine, which has to deal with the effect of the elements 



TOBACCO — HOW GROWN, CUKED AND PREPARED FOR MARKET. 



21 



upon organic forms, it must, in the nature of things, be rested upon theory 
and abstract mutual laws, and I do not hope that these are so well and uni- 
versally understood, as that there will not be persons who will be sceptical 
about such an innovation upon old and venerable methods: but that can only 
take us into a field, into which I am more than willing to go, that is a critical 
examination and test of the work done, and there the whole claim may 
safely rest. 

THE NEW TOBACCO CURING HOUSE. 




The unit of my tobacco curing house is a building, sixty feet long, di- 
vided into two sections of twenty-four feet each, and again these two sections 
are divided into two divisions of twelve feet each. The building is 33 6-12: 
feet wide, four tobacco stories high and has four tiers of 4 feet in width each 
side of the center walk, making eight tiers in all. In the center, between the 
two sections is a driveway of twelve feet, fitted with moval.ile bearings and 
doors moving upward on pulleys at each side of the building. 

Midway between the second and third stories is an inspection walk, eigh- 
teen inches wide, extending the length of the building, with a door on each. 



22 TOBACCO — HOW GROWN, CURED AND PKEPARED FOR MARKET. 



end for entrance and exit. This walk is of inch lioards, six inches wide, twelve 
feet long, and each end of every section of it rests upon the girders hereinafter 
described. The walk is built by placing the boards edgewise vertically, the 
two sides are shouldered to receive the ends of the sticks on which the tol^acco 
is hung, by using a piece of one inch by 4^ for each side piece, the intent being 
to have the upper surface of the lath, w^hen hung on the bearing, even or a 
little below the general surface of the walk, so that thej' will not be moved or 
disturbed by the inspector when passing along the walk. If it is desired, the 
walk can be made v/ider by adding the proposed additional width to the width 
of the building. This walk will be found an admirable feature of the curing 
house, as it affords to the grower an easy facility for careful examination of 
the way the curing is progressing, and of any change that is needed. This 
means of learning the exact condition of the curing tobacco, being so easy and 
certain, will be appreciated by growers, when they reniember how difficult it 
is to inspect the sheds as now constructed. It is true he can go along the out- 
.side of the building, and learn that it is green drying, but he will not be able 
to avoid a presentment, that in the center of the mass it is burning or rotting 
and he can only wait in doubt and fear, until the mischief has culminated. 
Knowledge of what is transpiring in the curing house is of the first import- 
ance to the grower, and it ought to be as certain and easy to obtain as the 
knowledge of the condition of the growing crop. In the absence of such 
knowledge, his days and nights are tormented with fears, which make the 
business a great burden. This walk is thus suspended between standards, 
which rest on a sill and support the rafters, in the midst of an air chamber, 
which opens into the roof ventilator, which will be described, and connects the 
ventilator with the base air chamber below the hanging tobacco, which will 
also be described further on in connection with the roof ventilators. This 
vertical air chamber, extending from the roof to the ground, has an important 
office in the curing house, and that there shall be the least possible obstruction 
to the passage of air duiing the curing season. This walk is made open by 
placing blocks two inches thick' and of suitable length between the boards, 
about six feet apart; this leaves veirtical openings in the walk, through which 
the air passes freely, up or down, as may be required. The superstructure of 
this curing house rests upon a base two feet high from the ground on sills, 
mortised to posts, set three feet in the ground, and is covered with matched or 
ship-lapped boards from the ground to the roof, and all knot holes or cracks 
are battered and made tight, and there are no ventilating doors in the Ijody of 
the liuilding. 

THE VENTILATION. 

The system of ventilation with this curing house consists : 
1st. The air chamber two feet beneath the hanging tobacco. 
2d. The vertical air shaft in center of building, its whole length. 



TOBACCO HOW GKOWN, CURED AND PREPARED FOR MARKET. 23 



3d. The air distributors in each section of the curing house, with their 
pipes connecting them wnth the fu.nnels outside of the house. 

4th. The rotary turret on the roof, with its double vanes for upward or 
downward draft. 

5th. The arresters to be hung in the center of each section to force an 
upward draft. 

6th. The outside ventiUiting doors in the liase to convey air into the ))ase 
chamlier. 

7th. The inside ventilating doors for special and local use, as ^vill lie 
hereafter explained. 

The construction and manner, of use of these several devices I now 
proceed to describe : 

The air chamber in the base receives the fresh air from the ou.tside through 
the base doors, whenever there is occasion for it, but not otherwise. This 
chamber, having no obsti'uction, will be always full of air, which can be made 
active and caused to circulate upwards through the hanging tobacco by open- 
ing the throat of the revolving ventilator. The current of air then pass- 
ing over the building, creates a strong draft from inside the curing house. 
But this current is by no means to be ke\^ up, only for short spaces of time 
as has been shown, after the foul air has been carried out of the building 
such a current of air does only damage. Currents of air otherwise perform 
no good office in a curing house. Upon entering the curing house, if the 
odor is strong, the air heavy and offensive, open the throat of the turret 
slightly, and at most times the draft upwards will, in from five to fif- 
teen minutes, clear out the bad air so completely, that any person may go 
through the building without inconvenience. Curing tobacco requires a 
pure, warm air, not too dry. With this plan of curing house it can scarcely 
ever become too moist, as whatever moisture it takes will l^e evenly distributed 
and no part of the tobacco being exposed to heavy wet drafts or currents of 
air, in no part will the case be too high, while artificial expedients must often 
be resorted to in order to temper the hot, dry air. Cured tobacco will take care 
of all the moisture that comes to it evenly and naturally distributed in 
the atmosphere, but tobacco exposed to dashes of wet currents of air, will take on 
black spots, that permanently soil and stain its surface, and immense damage 
is done to the crop by such exposure. With this building there is no possi- 
bility of such damage, as the wind, either wet or dry, never strikes against 
the tobacco. 

The system of ventilation, through the air stored and toned dow^n in this 
base air chamber, is so reasonable and natural in all aspects that I might 
leave the subject here, trusting to the judgment of tobacco growers, for their 
verdict in its favor, but there are some things, as matters of illustration, which 
it would seem proper at this time to mention. Take a stalk of green tobacco 
and hang it up above your h^ad, top ' downward, now step beneath it and 
notice the manner in which the leaves shape themselves into neat little fun- 



24 



TOBACCO — HOW GROWN, CURED AND PREPARED FOR MARKET. 



nels, in which the air may enter and proceed upward along the stalk and 
stems. Nature could not more plainly write out instructions for hanging tobacco 
than she has, almost in words, pointing out the manner in which the air should 
lead directly to the points, where fester and breed, sourness, rot and decay; and 
from this base air chamber all and every plant in the curing house is sure of 
a supply of pure air, conducted to its place by nature itself. 

POLE ROT. 

In pole rot the fiber of the leaf is destroyed, vitality is lost and the leaf 
crumbled to ashes or mould, instead of curing. If the causes which produce 
rot are sudden and very active, the leaf will rot at the base of the stem and 
fall to the ground. There are no direct and intrinsic causes of pole rot in the 
tobacco itself, except as I have mentioned. The fine and delicate leaves, which 
are the valuable ones, are more susceptible to it than the course, strong leaves, 
for the obvious reason, that being more tender, they yield easier to the foul 
air and crowding, which are chief causes of pole rot. Such tobacco requires 
greater care in spacing on the lath and placing on the bearings, so that it 
shall not be pushed and crowded ; and also that the fine, thin leaves are not 
left clinging to the green stalk, for although the circulation coming up under 
the leaves will generally lift all such leaves that cling, it is better that the 
workman see to it before the lath reaches the upper stories, that it all hangs 
free and clear. Pole rot then is mostly chargeable to the careless and un- 
skilled work of the grower, through which he loses the most valuable part of 
his product, as his thick course tol^acco can stand a great amount of 
ill usage. 

SHED BURN. 

Shed burn comes from too long holding back for the purpose of high color, 
but may come of careless placing of the tobacco. The tobacco, instead of be- 
ginning to ripen and cure, begins a new growth, the leaf putts out and thick- 
ens, and seems on the point of bursting with a surplus of sap. If a current 
of warm, moist air can be turned into the mass before it has gone too far, it 
will come out a fine color and strong texture with beautiful dark veins. If 
that unnatural condition continues too long, the leaf may retain some color, 
but its life and elasticity are gone, not to be restored. It will be hard and 
stiff and will not go into case, and breaks and crumbles when handled. Pole 
rot will of course add its mischief to the result when the causes for it. which 
I have described, combine with other causes. 

WHITE VEINS. 

There are several theories respecting the cause of white Veins in tobacco, 
and experts in tobacco culture and curing do not agree about it. They are 
liable to steal upon the grower unawares and when he has felt himself wholly 
secure from them. They are a curiosity in thonselves, and nothing, so far as 



TOBACCO — HOW GROWN, CURED AND PREPARED FOR MARKET. ZO 

now known, can be proved against them. Whenever they make their appear- 
ance in wrapper leaf, it must take a step down in grade, so that this one thing 
is well known of them, they cause the grower great loss. It often appears in 
short sections of the veins, other parts of the same veins being sound and of 
good color. Without attempting to state any theory explanatory of such ec- 
centricity, it may be that it would be caused by a check given to the growing 
leaf, by a short spell of cold weather retarding the growth by suspending the 
circulation of the sap, at the same time there Would be nothing in the condi- 
tions to suggest an impairment of the texture of the leaf; and none would 
appear until the curing should bring the damage to view. It is a fact be- 
yond any question, that a steady and uniform growth are essential to produce 
a perfect leaf, and it seems to me not entirely a guess, that a day or two of 
cold weather during its rapid growth should produce those spots of white 
vein to which I have referred. Some have attempted to account for white 
veins, by charging it to poor soil and a lack of cultivation, and I strongly in- 
cline to that opinion. Tobacco taken from such a field, where there has been 
no proper nutrition of the plant, and hung, fresh from the field, in the upper 
story of the shed, where it will be exposed to a hot atmosphere and the absorb- 
ing power of the heated roof of the l:iuilding, will undergo, in a few hours, 
a great change. Circulation will be almost instantly stopped, after which 
there can be no maturing, but only a dried up condition, out of which will 
come white veins to torment the grower for his careless and shiftless methods. 
The true way is for the grower to make his field rich with manure and keep 
it warm deep down and mellow with the plow, cultivator and hoe during the 
growing season, and nature that does not delight in monstrosities, but assidu- 
ously labors for her children, will so round out and finish her work with his 
aid that it shall bring to the toiler joy and gladness. 

The best result will come from planting early, so that the plant may have 
a vigorous start and be prepared for a rapid growth when the hot growing 
weather begins, for it must be remembered that the Havana Seed variety, 
which we have discussed, was originally a native of the -tropics, and in our 
northern latitude it requires every hot day of the season both for growth and 
afterwards for curing, and to that end the planting should be early. Fine 
curing cannot he done after cold days and cold nights begin. 

In this plan of curing house all the elements out of which come these three 
terrors of the curing process, are absolutely under the co ntrol of the operator, 
but in the last case the tobacco goes into the building w ith an inherited tend- 
ency to white veins, from which it may not be able wholly to escape. Pole 
rot and shed burn are not now masters in the curing house, they are subject to 
control, and with this building and its plan and methods, they are made 
impossible. 



26 TOBACCO — HOW GROWN, CURED AKD PREPARED FOR MARKET. 

VERTICAL AIR SHAFT. 

I proceed now to speak of the second item in the ventilation of the curing 
house. There are many seasons when the tobacco would seem to have nothing 
to do, but go right along with its business of curing. The weather, of 
both the days and the nights, are so mild and uniform, and good tempered, that 
everything seems to conspire to bring the curing through in the best possible 
manner. But such are rare seasons, as tobacco growers well know, the most 
common experience is that the elements seem to delight to baffle the grower ; 
and, hence, a tobacco curing house, to be worthy the name, must be fully 
equipped, with all needful appliances, to control all adverse conditions : as one 
of the devices to aid that design, the vertical air shaft is erected in the build- 
ing, from the ground to the ventilator on the roof. It often happens that 
during the season of cutting, tobacco does not wilt down easily in the build- 
ing. Showei-s of rain stimulate a renewal of growth, after reaching the 
Iniilding, and the stems and leaves stiffen out, and take nearly their condition 
before being cut down. It is possible, that under stress of weather, some to- 
bacco has been placed in the house, not much wilted, or perhaps damp with 
dew or rain. These of course aggravate all other bad conditions, and the 
strange spectacle will be presented, of the curing house being filled to suffoca- 
tion, by two agencies, one is the hauling in of the green tobacco from the field 
and placing it with the expectation that in a few hours it will wilt down, and 
give room in the building, and the other is this swelling out and puffing up, 
strutting, as it is called, which more than fills the space allotted to it, and de- 
mands more room. These are not unusual conditions, they are very common, 
and in the natural hurry and anxiety about storms and to escape frost 
the shed is filled up, when all through the building there are masses of to- 
l)acco, that nothing short of a miracle can save from shed burn. With the 
badly planned sheds of the present day, the grower is helpless, although it 
may have doors extending from the ground to the roof in the entire building, 
no air can reach the middle of the mass, nor can it be forced through, so 
dense has it become. Now let there come a few days, or even one day, of hot, 
damp weather, when there is scarcely perceptible a current of air, but the 
whole atmosphere presses downward, and nothing can save such a lot of to- 
bacco in such a condition, even to tear the roof off the building, would not help 
the case. The tobacco will rot down before the growers' eyes and he cannot 
help himself. Now what would my building do in this condition of the 
stored crop. I will tell what it would do, first premising that in the plan of 
hanging tobacco, presented and advocated in its proper place in this work, 
the conditions spoken of are very much less liable to arise, but when they 
do come, there is a prompt and speedy way to overcome them. The tobacco 
in that condition is peiishing for pure air in a desperate struggle for exist- 
ence, and the fore es arrayed against it are too strong for it, and it must 
succu mil. 



TOBACCO HOW GnO-W'N, CURED AND PREPARED FOR MARKET. 27 

It is a well known fact that if a current of air can be started in the mass , 
no matter what the direction, the tobacco is saved. So it is a common prac- 
tice to have at hand some fuel or material with which a fire can be started in 
the building, to create a draft, and, in the absence of better methods, it is a 
wise thing to do. With that condition of things in my curing house, this is what 
should be done. Step into the air chamber and pull a cord which comes down 
to the ground, and which carries back the sliding door, which covers the 
throat of the revolving ventilator. If there is any current of air passing over 
the building, the draft created by it begins at once to draw the air from in- 
side, and it is most likely so dense in a mass of four stories of green tobacco, 
that air cannot be forced through, but at the same time the air from the base 
chamber will readily respond to the draw upon it, and will freely pass into 
the vertical aiv shaft, as there is nothing in it to impede its way upwards. 
As the air begins to be exhausted in the air shaft, it will press more rapidly 
into it from the base air chamber, and into the latter from outside. It will 
l)e remembered that by my plan of hanging tobacco, the sticks of tobacco are 
suspended the narrow way of the building, one end of the lath, on both sides, 
resting on the walks ; of course then the channels or spaces between the hang- 
ing sticks lead directly into the air shaft, and although the air could not be 
forced up or down directly through the mass, it can be and will be drawn out 
of the mass into the air shaft, and so out of the building. The draft up the 
air shaft will depend upon the force outside the building, if that is but slight 
it will require a longer time to draw the air out of the curing house, but it 
will move and will work an immediate change in the condition of the tobacco. 

In the circumstances before referred to, when the air is hot and damp and 
presses downward upon the ground and on the building, the manner relief to 
1)6 gained is not so simple, but it is equally certain. In that case the storm 
vane of the turret is to he lowered by pulling a cord which reaches the walk 
and the vane drops to its place in the turret; by pulling the cord attached to 
the downward draft vane it is swung up to its place, and the turret swings around 
and brings its open face to receive whatever current there maybe; the sliding 
door, which closes the throat of the turret should be drawn and let wide 
open. The air will enter the ventilator, and press down the air shaft where 
it meets with no obstruction. All the base ventilators should now be fully 
ojiened, and the air in the base chamber will begin to move in some direction, of 
course we are indifferent as to which way it goes. The pressure down the air 
shaft, will soon be caught by the under base draft, and together will go out 
of the building. Whenever there is any movement in the building, the dam- 
aging process will be an-ested. Whereas, by the plan of my building, the 
end of the stick comes to the side of the building and the spaces between the 
sticks are channels through which the air may pass completely round the 
hanging mass and into the vertical air shaft, making an admirable system of 
circulation and affording no corners or places whei'e foul air can gather and 
remain to do its mischief. In the other plan these passages lietween the laths 



28 TOBACCO HOW GROWN, CURED AND PREPARED FOR MARKET. 



of tobacco run lengthwise continuously the length of the building, and, it is 
veiy plain have no means of exit, except by ascending straight up 
through the several stories. There must at all times, in such buildings, be 
accumulated bodies of foul air all through the building ready at any time to 
put in their damaging work of shed burn and pole rot. 

There are many other reasons in favor of this plan of driveway, which 1 
omit. For the purpose of such siire and certain method of drawing foul 
air from the curing house, the plan of driveway in this building is the very 
best possible and much superior to the driveway lengthwise through the build- 
ing, which brings the side of the whole stick of tobacco against the side of the 
building, and a healthy condition will take place. In operating the downward 
draft, it v/ill sometimes happen that there is no perceptible current in any 
direction, but simply a dowiiward pressure of the atmosphere, so far as can 
be observed, but I have always found the ventilator turning in response to 
some pressure and indicating a current of air above the building. The bear- 
ing on which the revolving ventilator turns at this season should be kept well 
oiled to facilitate its movement: but, as before stated, the outside pressure will 
make an entrance into the air shaft and till the loft of the building in any 
case, and compel a movement in the curing house. The operator, by going 
about the building, will soon be informed by the strong odors that the move- 
ment has begun. It may seem to many persons that so simple a device can- 
not prevail over the obstinate, bad conditions, which are at work inside, but 
let all such place themselves outside, and near the building, while the opera- 
tor is at the work, and they will be satistied, very soon, that the plan is not 
only very simple, but easy, and the work well and quickly done. When the 
condition is made satisfactory to the operator, the storm vane should be raised 
and the other let down. 

THE AIR DISTRIBUTORS. 

The od item in the system of ventilation of this curing house, is the air 
distributors. This is simply a wooden box eight feet long, with end pieces, 
and eight by eight inches inside measure, with six slots, six inches long, and 
two inches wide in the top, and is placed in the center of each section of the 
curing house, on' the ground, and close to the sill, on which the standards rest. 
To each end of this distributor is fitted one end of a conducting pipe, also 
made of thin boards; the other end of the pipe just reaches to the outside of 
the building, and to the end is fitted a funnel, made either of tin or thin 
boards, and should be frojn 12 to 16 inches across its face, and flared outside 
so as to bring it close to the side of the building. These conducting pipes 
should have an inside surface of at least four by four inches, and will rise a 
little as they approach the side of the building, in order to give room above 
the ground outside for the funnel. Each funnel is pi-ovided with a cut off ^ 
whereby the air may be excluded from the distributor, when not needed in the 
building. 



TOHACCO — HOW GROWN, CURED AND PREPARED FOR MARKET. 29 

THE PURPOSE OF THE DISTRIBUTOR. 

Having wliolly departed from the common way of ventilation of tobacco 
slieds, and brought forward what I claim is a more rational and sensible 
method, it will be expected that I shall explain the purpose and manner of 
using this new device. 

Early in my exijerience of growing and curing tobacco,! found myself 
confronting a problem that was not easy to solve. It was simply this : The 
center of the mass of curing tobacco badly needed air, and although there 
were plenty of hinged doors on the building, and they were kept open, yet the 
center was in a dangerous condition from want of air. 1 also found that the 
outer tier of tobacco was being damaged by too much wind — was dr^-ing 
green, and was blackened by the wind and sun and rain. What the situation 
needed was some device whereby the outer tiers of tobacco might be protected 
from wind and sun, and still independent of mere doors, pure air from out- 
side could be carried under the hanging tobacco where it was not needed and 
distributed in the center of the building where it was needed. This distribu- 
tor, with its connecting pipes, is the result of long study and ex}>eriment upon 
that problem. The building can breathe, through these devices, no matter in 
what direction the wind may blow, or whether it blows at all or not. A sud- 
den shifting of the wind to any point need cause no alarm, and no attention 
to it is required. Wherever the wind goes it finds the funnels in place to 
catch it, or if not needed, a little child can be sent to close down the cut-off, or 
to open them. When a strong draft of air is required in the building, the 
storm vane is raised, and, throat of turret being open, it will be done in a few 
minutes of time thi'ough the distributor ; but if the condition of the tobacco 
requires that air should be forced through it, a base ventilating door should 
lie raised in each section on the windward side, and the roof ventilator opened. 
If the tobacco is very dense in the lower tiers, and the incoming current 
sti'ong, it will be best to open the arresters in each section, otherwise the wind 
will be likely to rush through the base air chamber, and striking the other 
side of the building will rebound in the tobacco on that side, and cause dam- 
age by drying and shriveling it up. The arresters break this current of 
wind, and it will take its course upward through the tobacco. It should be 
Ijorne in mind that all these are extraordinary remedies for peculiar and criti- 
cal conditions, and a whole season might pass without calling for a resort to 
them. The distributors are the common and ordinary means through which 
the curing tobacco is kept in a healthy condition, and reaches its beautiful 
transformation in quiet and certainty, and in total darkness, which is one of 
the conditions necessary to that result. 

THE REVOLVING TURRET VENTILATOR. 

The fourth item, m the plan of ventilating this curing house, is the re- 
volving turret ventilator. It has an opening on one side for currents of air 
to pass through, up or down, and is suspended upon a pin passing through an 



30 TOBACCO HOW GROWN, CURED AND PREPARED FOR MARKET. 

upright iron shaft. It has two vanes, one of which is called the down draft 
vane, drops down into the inside of the turret, through a thin slot, in its 
closed face. This vane when raised, will bring the open face of the turret to 
the wind, and is useful for letting cool damp air into the loft of the building 
during hot weather, at about and soon after the cutting is done: at such time 
the roof becomes heated, and the loft inside is intensely hot. It is a good 
plan every evening of a hot day to let the cool air into the upper part of the 
curing house, through this ventilator, for a half hour or more. This vane 
should not be left up only for such times and purposes, as, if the wind should 
rise and blow strong, it would do harm to the tobacco, and might unship the 
turret, as the wind has it at an advantage in that position. When the pur- 
pose is accomplished, lower this vane and raise the storm vane, which keeps 
the closed face always to the wind. This vane drops down into the air open- 
ing of the turret, and wdieh raised is of course over it. These vanes are both 
of them raised and lowered from the walk, and a little cl\ild can handle them. 
The usefulness of this device will be apparent to all tobacco growers, as it 
will be seen at once that it makes the operator master of the whole situation, 
and as may often happen, it wall need Init limited use, in a whole curing sea- 
son; it is there, however, ready if wanted. I have a crop of tobacco, grown the 
past season, and cured in this building. Its color is beautiful, while the veins 
and texture are all that can be desired, and the richness in gum and gloss are 
pronounced wonderful by all who have examined it; and I will take pleasure 
m showing it to growers, dealers and manufacturers, or any others who are 
interested, and yet during the whole season the roof ventilator was not once 
opened. The building and tobacco were-freely examined during -that tiaw, 
and I never heard but one opinion expressed, that was that tobacco so treated 
must shed burn or rot. In fact, there was neither; so obstinate and tena- 
cious are men, when once opinions are formed, and they are traveling in a 
beaten path, which they leave wdth great reluctance. Another advantage of 
this ventilator in connection with base ventilators is, that while in use ventil- 
ating the building the sunlight is wholly excluded, and there are few more 
destructive agencies in tobacco curing than sunlight. It should never fall on 
curing tobacco. 

THE ARRESTERS. 
The fifth item in the system of ventilation of this curing house is the arrester. 
It is a simple device to compel the air, which enters the base chamber, to deflect at 
the center of the building and proceed upward through the hanging tobacco. 
It is simply two wings made of common boards, about 30 inches long and 12 
to 16 inches wide, hinged by the narrow side to a standard of 2 by 4 common 
pine lumber, and hung to one of the bearings in the lower story. Its purpose 
is to aid in those bad conditions which are common in all curing houses, when 
from threatening weather or fear of frost the building has been crowded 
with tobacco, only partially wilted, or that has been exposed to rain or falling 



TOBACCO HOW GROWN, CURED AND PREPARED FOR MARKET. 31 

dew, and so in svxch stress it has been placed in the building in an improper 
and unsafe condition, as being a less danger than that to which it would be 
exposed if left in the field. The necessity upon the grower in such circum- 
stances, is to at once bring a warm current of air through such a mass of 
tobacco, in order that it may take up the water from the plants and carry it 
off, and bring the leaves and stems immediately to wilting. The arx-ester is 
hung to a bearing, or as near as may be to such mass, and a small outside ventil- 
ating door is opened on the windward side of the building. The air will pass 
under the tobacco and will be met by the arrester, by which the current will 
lie broken, and deflected up into the mass, and in a few hours time the wilt- 
ing will be making flne progress. An expedient to overcome the difficulty 
mentioned is often resorted to by growers. They hx a set of long bearings 
outside, and carry the tobacco out and hang it outside upon the return of fair 
weather. This is much better than to leave it inside where it is sure to strut 
and burn in the common sheds. The air must go thoroughly through the 
tobacco to carry off the water ; when that is done tlje wilting is easy. Of 
course it is best when the tobacco is once in the curing house that it remain 
there, and the elements that have made the trouble will rectify it if given a 
fair chance. When the downward draft is used these wings must be closed, 
which brings them at right angles with the sides of the building. 

OUTSIDE BASE VENTILATING DOORS. 

The manner of construction and use of these ventilating doors will be 
obvious to all experienced tobacco growers. This plan of ventilation calls for 
a careful and guarded use of the ventilators. As will be remembered, it has 
been laid down, as an important principle, that currents of air must not be 
permitted habitually to play through the building. The distributors fur- 
nishing all that is needed, except for extraordinary conditions, which have 
been detailed. If the weather is hot, while cutting, and the growth is large, 
and the building being fllled rapidly, it will be well at night to leave a door 
in each section open two or three inches on both sides of the building. They 
will serve to cool off the heated tobacco and leave it in good condition, at the 
same time the throat of each turret should be opened two to four inches. 
While hauling in tobacco do not leave the driveway doors open on the wind- 
ward side no longer than may be necessary to drive out or in. It is better to 
go round and drive in on the lea side and back the wagon out when it is un- 
loaded if the wind is blowing strong, as in a few minutes time such a wind 
will blacken the leaves on both sides of the driveway. 

THE INSIDE VENTILATING DOORS. 

This device will be found very convenient and useful in many emergencies 

that are liable to arise during the most favorable curing season. They are 30 

inches long and of uniform width, with the outside ventilating doors, that is 

about ten inches wide and should be well made of light material. They have 



32 TOBACCO — HOW GROWN, CURED AND PREPARED FOR MARKET. 

two sets of hangings, and have two offices to perform. At suitable distance 
from each end a common screw hook is fastened. Corresponding to these 
hooks are tw^o sets of common screw eyelets, one set in the narrow board out- 
side nailed to the base posts. The other set of eyes are fastened to the inside 
lower edge of the sill, and the door is shifted from one to the other of these 
sets of eyes. The purpose of this device is to aid the other appliances of the 
curing house in overcoming adverse conditions, either of the weather or in- 
side the building. In the circumstance detailed respecting the arresters, this 
door will do good service ; by hanging it to the lower hooks and bringing its 
other edge up and raising the outside ventilating door which covers it, a stream 
of air can be carried directly up into the hanging tobacco at any point, from 
the center of the building to the side, and raising it at a sharp angle will 
bring the current close- to the side or in the outer tier, while lowering the door 
will carry it nearer the center. If the curing house stands east and west, the 
south side will be very much heated, and the tobacco will show the effects, 
and will shrivel and incline to dry green. This door will be found a most 
useful device to overcome that tendency. It should then be brought up to a 
sharp angle at night, or when it rains, and a current of cool moist air should 
be passed up the inside of the walls all night, or during a wet spell of weather, 
and so will equalize the temperature inside the building. Of course it should 
be closed on that side during hot, dry weather, as it can then help nothing. 
On the north side of a building, so placed, it being continuously in the shadow, 
the tobacco may be inclined to go too slow, as there wall be a difference of 
several degrees in the temperature between the north and south sides of the 
curing house. The heat being less and less absorbing, there will be need of 
passing air from the outside into the tobacco, to prevent its goin g into a cold 
sweat, as that condition always precedes shed burn; and for that purpose it 
Avill be manipulated in the same manner as already described. These doors 
when hung from the upper fastenings, serve a good purpose at such times, as 
it becomes necessary to carry a strong current of air into the building. By 
bringing the lower edge of the door down near the ground, the current of air 
which would otherwise rush through the outer door, would strike the tobacco 
■with too much force. While the air is needed in the building, its violence 
must be toned down, and that is effected by its being broken against this in- 
side door, from it the wind will reljound against the ground, and when it 
takes the upward direction, its violence will abate, and whatever of current it 
may have, it will be gentle and without commotion. 

As I shall have occasion to speak further respecting the ventilating doors, 
when I reach that part of the work, wherein will be discussed the matter of 
putting the cured tobacco in case for stripping, I will not now further occupy 
time with them. On account of the novel features of the building, and its 
plan of curing, I have felt constrained to go into minute details, with a view 
to its being undeystood. It will strike some persons, no doubt, as being elab- 
orate, too much so, they w411 perhaps conclixde, for simple and practical use, 



TOBACCO — HO-W GROAVN, CURED AND PREPARED FOR MARKET. 33 

but they could hardly make a greater mistake. A little study will gixe a fair 
comprehension of its devices, and the ease and certainty with which it does its 
work will surprise everyone. 

IN THE FIELD. 

Keturning- to the tobacco field, which we left to explain the curing- 
house and ])lan of curing, which is advocated, we take up again the cut- 
ting and hanging the tobacco. I will state first why I urge leaf growers 
to almndon a practice which is slovenly and illy fitted to the handling of the 
tender leaf of a good growth. A course growth might not be injured. The 
practice of spearing and hanging the stalks upon laths is now almost univer- 
sal, and it is doubtful if a better way can be devised, unless it might be that 
the practice which originated in Connecticut, and is followed by many good 
growers there, of hanging upon hooks, which have been permanently fastened 
to the lath, is a better way, thus doing away with the spear and any deter- 
ioration of quality, which has been thought to follow the splitting the green 
stalks, as hastening the drying up of the sap in the stalk. 

In October, 1885, I met Mr. Phelps, President of the New England Tol)acco 
Growers' Association, a gentleman of fine discriminating Judgment and large 
experience in all matters concerning tobacco, and he discussed, in an enter- 
taining and instructive manner, among others, the methods of hanging tobacco. 
I have been strongly impressed ever since with the utility of the system of 
hanging on hooks, as explained by him, and I intend the present season to try 
the plan upon a scale large enough to be able to satisfy myself of its value as 
compared with the present practice. At the present I do not know of a 
better way than that of spearing the stalks now in vogue. 

We will now proceed with the cutting and hanging. The grower should 
have a tobacco rack of the following dimensions: Two bed pieces 2x8 eighteen 
feet long, two top pieces 2x4, same length; six standards 2x4 five feet long; 
three girths 2x6 tennoned at each end, to enter mortises in the two bed pieces, 
framed of a width to enter between the wagon stakes. The standards are 
bolted each with three bolts to the outside of the bed pieces. The lower end 
of standard being a little shouldered to rest on the upper edge of the l^ed 
piece, to relieve the bolts from a part of the weight of the load. The two 
pieces of 2 by 4 are bolted to the top inside of the standard, being shouldered 
to relieve the boks. Across the top of the bearings in front, nail a narrow 
board for seat for driver. At the center place a swing hook, hung onto a 
staple fitted to one bearing, with an eye and a grappling hook, to swing over 
and clasp the other bearing. This binds the load together and prevents its 
spreading, and keeps the tobacco from rubbing and chafing, and is strong. 
AVhen the wagon is unloaded up to this grappler, lift it and swing it around 
and drop it on the side it is hung. He then should make, for a small field 
two, and for a larger one four filled racks, into Avhich the tobacco should be 
placed, on taking it from the spearing horse, for the custom of laying down 



34 TOBACCO- — HOW GROWN, CURED AXD PREPARED FOR MARKET. 

in piles, in the field on the lath, waiting for the wagon, is too slovenly and 
unworkmanlike to be tolerated, and it ought to be abandoned at once and for- 
ever. There is every imaginary reason against and not one for it. This is 
the bad custom to which allusion is made at the beginning of this subject. 
Often it is laid, ten and twelve sticks in a pile, and left lying for hours in the 
sun. The leaves in the whole pile, except at the top, will be bruised by the 
big hard stems below and above them. Careless and thoughtless workmen 
will swing the stick of tobacco up above the pile and let it fall heavily, grind- 
ing and crushing whatever comes together. Another among many good rea- 
sons against the practice spoken against is: In the best managed field the 
surface of the ground will have innumerable objects of all shapes and forms 
to pierce, tear and bruise tobacco, laid down upon it, little sticks, straws, bits 
of weed stalks, will be stabbing it, unseen by the grower, but they get their 
work in, and it constitutes a large per cent, of the fine leaves, which by such 
defects are made to take a lower grade. Such per cent, of loss from these 
causes would go a good way towards paying the cost of harvesting the field. 
The stalk when cut must lay where it falls on the ground, until it is wilted. 
There seems to be no other way, but when it is strung it should be from the 
rows, where it was laid, and then carried at once and hung in the field rack 
to wait for the wagon. 

A good rack for the purpose may l)e made from poles four or five inches 
thick, and 16 to 18 feet long, with legs about five feet long, sharpened a little 
to enter the ground, and standing a little wider at the bottom than the top, 
with some braces to keep it erect. Such a rack will hold from 40 to 60 sticks, 
and when emptied two men take it up easily, and carry it up to the field, 
convenient for filling again. An active boy should be employed to gather 
the plants from the row, and liring them to the man at the horse for spearing, 
two rows may be taken at a time, and the horse moved along, to keep in 
proper distance, and not carry the plants too far. The wagon rack will hold 
about 70 sticks, unless the plants are very large. They may be pressed gently 
together, so that the leaves will not chafe, generally about five inches apart, 
or a little less, being careful to have all the leaves straight. About six stalks 
to the lath is plenty. 

We now proceed to hanging the tobacco in the curing house. To this 
work to which we now come, the grower must bring care and judgment to 
superintend what is to crown all his previous labor with success or failure. 
His efforts in the field have been mainly such as are bestowed upon most field 
crops, except in a few particulars incident to this crop. In the curing house 
all the work is peculiar, and requires a steady brain and careful hand. I am 
aware that the plan of placing the tobacco in the curing house, which is de- 
scribed and advocated here, is contrary to the practice most in vogue ; but I 
shall endeavor to show, as I pass along, very excellent reasons why this is the 
best plan. Taking the load into any one of the driveways, if there are more 



TOBAOCO— How GROWN, OUREi) AND PREPARED FOR MARKET. 35 

than one, one man on the wagon passes the stick of tobacco over the bearing, 
another takes it and places it at the further end of one tier, and so on till all 
the tiers in that division are full. Do not crowd it, but le^ the tips of the 
leaves just touch; ordinarily that will bring the sticks from 5 to 8 inches 
apart, depending on the wilting and the growth or sizes of the plants. Then 
go to the other side of that driveway and fill the first division on that side in. 
the same manner, and so enter the next driveway, if there are more, and fill 
the first divisions on the right and left of that driveway, and proceed until 
the ground story is half filled, excepting the driveways. No tobacco should 
be placed in them until late in the cutting, unless there is threatening weather 
or frost is feared. You have now one empty division in each section, and one 
full one. After 11 o'clock in the forenoon no tobacco should be lying on the 
ground, when the sun is shining, until about two o'clock. The team may be 
tied up, and the two who have been hauling in the tobacco should then go 
into the building and move the tobacco into the rear divisions throughout the 
curing house. The two will shift a division in about twenty minutes. Each 
tier will hold about 18 sticks, and in the eight tiers of a division, first story, 
there will be about 150 sticks. There will now be space in the first story for 
what you will be likely to put in during the afternoon, and at night the first 
story of the building is full. If there is any exigency, which requires extra 
efforts in the field, the man who hands the sticks up to the driver, as soon as 
the wagon is loaded, may go immediately and help in such emero-ency. The 
driver can unload the wagon alone almost as (piick as two can do it, by hav- 
ing a 12 foot plank to walk on, one end of it being laid on the bed piece of 
the rack, the other end on the ground in the tier to be filled, and shifting it 
into another when that is done. In any event unless help is cheap and abun- 
dant, it is far the best way. At this placing it is not necessary to pay very 
much attention to the spacing of the stalks on the sticks, but those who are 
spearing should exercise some care, and not crowd the stalks together. A 
habit should be formed by them of quickly pulling each stalk pretty near to' 
the place on the stick that it ought to occupy. When the stick is lifted out of 
the rack, before placing it on the bearings, it should be shaken gently, right 
to left and back, two or three times, to separate the leaves that have been 
pressed together, and to open them about the stalks. 

The following day we shall require space in which to hang tobacco, as the 
cutting is to go right along. The tobacco will not bear handling towards sun 
down, although the suckering may be done, if needed for the next day's cut- 
ting, as the suckering and cutting should be kept close together. A part of 
the force can put in an hour in the curing house before dark to good advan- 
tage. Each one should be provided with a piece of strong board about five 
feet long, and as many inches wide ; going to the tier fii-st laid, begin at the 
back side, move the sticks apart and lay his board on the bearings, then lift 
the outside stick, shake it gently, run the eye quickly over the plants, and see 



36 TOBACCO HOW GROWN, CURED AND PREPARED FOR MARKET. 

if tliey are not crowded onto the center of the sticks, which is most likely the 
case. Placing the lath on the bearings, in the second story, piill the outer 
stalk at each end out to the bearing ; see to it that the stalks hang straight 
down, and that they do not crowd each other : give each stalk its share of space. 
It may happen there are crooked stalks on the stick; all such stalks ought to 
be put at the end of the lath and turned outward, where there will be space 
into which the crook may throw the top, and avoid its kicking into the other 
.plants. It is a good plan to break such stalks at the bend or elbow, to remove 
all possibility of their doing damage. At this raising the sticks may be 
moved a little closer together, as the plants have proljably wilted some 
in the building. In the evening and following morning before work 
can be resumed in the field, all the divisions filled can be moved onto the 
second story. Fill the first story again in the same manner as at first^ 
then proceed in about the same manner to move the tobacco up to the third 
stor}'. The tobacco having been carefully examined, shaken out and spaced 
in the first removal, this second can be done very rapidly, only do not handle 
it roughly. When the two first stories of the building are full, it may require 
nearly half of one man's time in handling it, and the outside work should be 
planned with that in view. There is no part of the business where judicious 
and careful work will pay any better, and the best man should be placed in 
the curing house. The tobacco is thus every day passed in critical review; 
instant notice is taken if the appearance is any way wrong; if there is, that 
tobacco should be placed where it can be specially treated by removing it from 
the mass, lowering it to the ground or carrying it up. (xenerally if the stems 
soften down there is no trouble, but if they stand out and stiffen, take it out 
of its place and put it where the warm air can touch it. Unless there has 
been hasty and careless work in placing it on the first story, by unduly crowd- 
ing it, trouble of that kind is not likely to arise, but it should be discovered 
and corrected before it leaves the second story. Having no further to go 
when placed on the fourth story, it should be placed Avlth care, generally 
about four inches l)etween sticks. 

There is now a great mass of green tobacco in the l)uilding, and more 
care is necessary in placing it. All that is put in, aft?r two stories are full, 
should hang without touching, to insure a certainty that all jjarts of the plants 
are touched by the warm air to the end that the wilting, which is often im- 
perfect, when it is brought in, may be completed before it will have to take its 
place in the mass with green tobacco above it and below it, and at each side. 
The operator should understand the danger of placing half wilted tobacco in 
the midst of such a mass ; it will start on a new growth, and of such extra- 
ordinary vigor is the plant, that in such condition it has been knowai to grow 
large suckers in the building, that have blossomed and formed seed pods. A 
warm current of air -will soon correct such a state of things. 

This proceeds until the crop is in the curing house. In placing the last 



TOBACCO — now GROWN, CURED AND PREPARED FOR MARKET. 37 

cutting, which by this plan will come onto the first story, the same care must 
be exercised as in placing the tobacco on the upper stories. It must ba placed 
more open, and the stalks carefully spaced on the sticks, and they must be 
placed at even distance? apart. During the week or ten days su'jceeding the 
final cutting, the curing house should be carefully examined every day, both 
from the ground and along the walk, moving the sticks aside and passing 
the hands over the tobacco in the tiers to the right and left of the 
walk. If any of it feels damp and clammy, and the veins somewhat hard and 
stiff, it needs air at once ; open an outride ventilating door nearest to the 
place, and bring the inside shifting door upward to such a position as will be 
most certain to turn a stream of air into it; examine it two or three times a 
day, or until it seems to be coming into good condition. The upper tiers 
should also be examined every day during the first ten days. The first cut- 
ting ought now to have taken on the yellow colors which follow the ripening 
and precede the curing and coloring, and the grower, in this building, having 
easy facility in the inspection, ought to know every day that the curing is 
progressing evenly and with uniformity in every part of the curing house. 
Once or twice a day the air should be changed by opening the turret, as the 
green tobacco is throwing off a great quantity of gas, and the air will become 
very heavy and foul. On rainy days keep the building closed, and send a 
current through the inside ventilator up along the side of the building to 
overcome the drying tendency. 

As I have shown elsewhere, there ought to be no drying of the tobacco 
while the curing is in progress, and there is neither reason nor sense in the 
practice of throwing the building wide open during a wet spell of weather 
while curing, in order, as it is said, to have the "come and go" improve the 
color. When the grower has cured one crop of tobacco on the plan herein 
suggested, he will smile when his memory reverts to what he read in treatises 
on tobacco curing, about softening of his dried green tobaccco, in oi'der to 
finish the curing and coloring hy exposing to wet weather. Such treatment 
will spot the leaf and blacken it. In the nature of things, the leaf should 
have, in the stalk and stem, all the moisture it needs or can take care of. 
The dampness coming to it from outside is unnatural, and disturbs the curing 
process, and should be rigidly excluded except for the occasions and in the 
manner vvdiich I have elsewhere mentioned. When the tobacco has all taken 
on color, you may close the curing house and lock it, but it v/ill even the colors 
to dampen it once or twice before freezing time comes. 



TOBACCO — HOW GP.OWX. CURED AXD PREPARED FOR MARKET. 




FIGURE 1 

Is a vertical longitudinal se:-t;on of a curing house embodying my im- 
provements. The turret ventilator is sliown witli the storm vane raised, and 
the down draft vane hanging inside the turret. The simple devices for low- 
ering and raising these vanes as shall be necessary also appear. 

One of the most admirable features of this curing house, the inspection 
walk, is shown by the double lines and the dotted line between them running 
the whole length of the building between the s'econd and third stories; thus, 
as will be seen, carrying the inspector through the midst of the mass of hang- 
ing tobacco at its vertical and longitudinal center, and.it will be obvious to the 
tobacco gi-ower that the first appearance of bad condition will be instantly de- 
tected by the inspector from this walk, and the facilities for correcting them 
are at his hand. The walk should be about two feet wdde, or a little more or 
less. This vertical air chamber in which no tobacco is hung is a saving of 
space as the ease and certainty with which currents of air may at all times be 
drawn to or from all parts of the building by this plan enables the grower to 
save nearly one-third of the distances in placing the lath. That is, on all the 
Ijearings above the first story, he may place nearly three laths where two would 
be placed in any other plan of building. This close placing contributes 
largely to beautiful, high and uniform color. 



TOBACCO HOW GROWN, CURED AND PREPARED FOR MARKET. 



39 




FIGURE 2 

Is a sectional plan view of the curing house, showing the inspection willv, 
and below it the distributors in each section with their connecting pipes run- 
ning under the hanging tobacco from the air funnel outside close to the 
ground w'here it receives the fresh air and conveys it, without coming in con- 
tact with the tobacco along the side of the building, to the distributors, from 
which it is discharged through their slotted upper surface in the center of the 
mass of curing tobacco. 

I feel fully warranted in assuming that intelligent tobacco growers from 
the earliest attempts to grow and cure the plant have seen the great want of 
some plan or device whereby pure air may be supplied to the curing house 
without carrying it against the curing tobacco along the sides of the building- 
through vertical or horizontal doors in the body of the building. The damage 
done by such awkward contrivances would strike the grower forcibly every 
time he examined his curing tobacco, and hence it would seem inevitable that 
the early growers of tobacco must have earnestly desired a more philosophical 
way of managing the elements and of avoiding their attendant damaging 
effects. Properly placed in the building, tobacco in this curing house cures 
itself as it ought to do, while the rapidity with which the air is changed in 
the building enables the grower to hold it up to a high condition of tempera- 
ture which is absolutely essential to a high color, gum and gloss, smooth and 
handsome veins, which go to make the value of wrapping leaf. 



40 



TOBACCO HOW GROWN, CUEKD AND PREPARED FOR MARKET. 




FRIURE 3 

Figure 3 is a cross section elevation, snowing the open face of the tur- 
ret, tli^e sliding doors which close the throat of the turret, an end section of 
the walk, the small entrance door below^ the walk, the inside shifting deflect- 
ing doors, and outside base ventilating doors. 

It will be seen that there are three tiers of tobacco each side of the walk, 
or six tiers as shown, but it is obvious that if desired the building may be 
planned for eight tiers, or four each side of the walk, without changing any 
detail of the plan in any other respect. 

The great strength of this plan of luiilding will not by tobacco growers be 
considered the least of its merits. By looking at figure 3 it will be seen that 
all the standards wdiich support the roof and the bearings with their loads of 
tobacco, all rest upon sills that are tennoned at each end through the base 
posts that are set deeply in the ground, thus making the roof and all the 
matter inside serve to hold the building in place, while the system of sections 
and cross driveways leaves the system of bracing in each section perfect as 
that of an independent building. The removal of the loose bearings in the 
cross driveways not in the least interfering wu th the system of bracing in each 
section. Whereas by the plan most in vogue of a driveway lengthwise through 
the curing house, making movable bearings necessary for its entire length, 
weakens the building in all its parts, and when it is assailed by a storm, its 
first tendency is to colL-.pse, because the weakness is in the whole structure 
and all its imrts, and there is no sturdy" reserve such as a section of this build- 



TOBACCO HOW GROW?^, CURED AND PREPARED FOR MARKET. 41 

ing presents to supi:)Ort the long structure whose jnside vital muscles and tini- 
l)ers have been cut away or loosened to afford a driveway. 

But that feature of this plan which ought to commend it to tobaccO' 
growers, if nothing else does, is that its plan places the ends of the tobacco 
lath to the side of the building, thus so leading its channels between the sticks 
the short instead of the long way of the building. In this plan they lead 
from both sides of the wnlk into the center, vertical air chamber, where they 
are at all times subject to the upward or downward draft, through the turret 
ventilator. 



STRIPPING. 

The tobacco should be sulijected to one good freeze, and then he on the 
alert for an opportunity to take it down. Usually in December there comes, 
a few warm, damp, foggy days, without any wind. This is your opportunity and 
don't miss it, even if you have to get out of bed at night, but anyway get the 
building open. If you can discern any current of air, even slight currents, 
open on the windward side, keep the other side closed tightly. The reason is 
that if you open both sides of the building the current of air will naturally go- 
through under the tobacco and pass out at the other side, dampening perhaps 
the first story; and if you open only on the side opposite the currents of air, 
they will form a draft from the inside of the building that will flow outward ;. 
by following the directions above, the quiet current will flow into the base 
chamber, there it will then be modified, and the damp, still air will fill the 
building. It is understood that we need no current to pa>,s up out of the 
building; for currents of air will dry as fast as the dampness will moisten 
the tobacco, and it has been found to be a slow process to put tobacco in suit- 
able case for stripping, in any manner of dampness, that is carried in a cur- 
rent of wind. In the tobacco sheds of the day, the dampness cannot be got 
into the building, unless the wind carries it in ; and as already shown, the 
Avind defeats the purpose, and so often as I have known, the grower struggles 
with the elements a week or more to get his tobacco in case, and then fails to 
do it from these causes. With this curing house the damp air passes freely 
into the base air chamber, and it l^eing dry inside, absorption begins at once.. 
The air chamber will be kept full, and in a surprisingly short time the whole 
1)uilding will be filled with damp air, because there is no counteracting agency 
except absorption. My own curing house is one hundred and fifty feet long, 
four stories high, and twenty-eight feet wide, and in 12 hours I have put the. 
whole mass in beautiful case, and taken it down as fast as three men could, 
put it in bulk. If the wind should suddenly rise, after the tobacco is in case,, 
or any part of it, and change to freezing, the curing house should immediately 
lie closed up tightas it is possible to make it. The tobacco that is in case can. 
be held there until you have had time to take it down. 



42 TOBACCO HOW GROWN, CURED AND PREPARED FOR MARKET. 

TAKING DOWN TOBACCO. 

In this curing house there will be very little, if any difference, in the case 
in any part of the building. It w^ll, in fact, be uniform wherever it is in 
ca-;e. The hanging tobacco, receiving its dampness from the base air cham- 
ber, it must necessarily be evenly distributed, as it is not carried against the 
1)ody of the hanging mass, as in common sheds, by the currents of air, which 
puts that near the building too high, and a short distance into the building 
there will be scarcely an appearance of moisture, but in this plan it proceeds 
upward among the leaves, and the whole mass of tobacco is equally accessible, 
at all i)oints. from the base air chamber. 

Begin at that place in the curing house most convenient for your work. 
The ground should be always perfectly neat and clean, and be evened down 
smooth, and should be free from sticks, stalks or rubbish, and nothing should 
be permitted to lay around on the ground. On the first story it may be taken 
directly from the bearings and laid in piles, the sticks outward, the leaves 
lapping. Put about 20 sticks in a pile. Do not lap so much as to bring the 
leaves over onto the butts of the stalks, as they are liable to be torn on them. 
Do not pitch the sticks, but take them in the hands, and raising up to the pile_ 
Vie careful and not throw the leaves of the sticks you are handling against the 
rough ends of the stalks in the pile. In short, in all the work of taking down 
and bulking, be careful and do not pierce and tear the leaves. These piles, 
although placed temporarily until you can get to them to strip off the stalks, 
ought to be laid up square and even, the sticks being one above the other on 
both sides of the pile. If one stick is thrown in carelessly, its leaves will 
reach beyond the pile on the other side and they will be torn, at the same 
time, whatever leaves come on top of a stick so placed will be damaged. If 
the crop is a large one, and the condition favorable, a force should be organ- 
ized, so that two men can keep right along taking down, and four men be em- 
ployed in removing the stalks from the lath. It is not a neat way to place 
the tobacco on the ground. If the ground is very damp, it is liable to soil 
the leaves, even the few minutes which it will lay in piles. If rain or snow 
has got into the building, you must put something on the ground on which to 
lay these piles. Having arranged all that matter properly, take some smooth 
boards and lay down a bed about four feet wide, placing the boards close to- 
gether, in one of the driveways lengthwise on the ground. A bulkhead should 
be Iiuilt of smooth boards, to keep the end of the bulk up square, as wide as 
tlie bed. In taking the stalks from the lath, two men work together, one 
take one end of the stick firmly in both hands, the other stands opposite to 
him and near the bed, and as the first raises the stick between them, he grasps 
the stalks at the end from him, one hand above, the other below, but near the 
lath, and by a quick pull on the part of both of them together, the lath will 
be pulled out, and the second man will have the stalks in his hands; he then 
turns about and lays them down smooth and even on the bed, the butts out 



TOBACCO — HOW GROWN, CURED AND PREPARED FOR MARKET. 4o 

and the leaves in. On a bed of that width the stalks will, with ordinary 
growth, lap sufficienly so that the bulk will he solid throughout, as if there 
are places which are not filled and pressed hard they will dry out. After lay- 
ing two tiers round the bed, a smooth board should be laid on the pile and 
pressed down hard as possible by the weight of the two men. Removing the 
boards, they will discover whether the bulk is begun too wide or too narrow^ 
and thereafter lay on the stalks as may be required, to keep the whole 
bulk even and solid. To work according to some plan is a good way to secure 
uniformity, and this is a good form for this work. Lay down on the bed the 
first stalks taken off, then lay the next handful of stalks smooth and even on 
top of them, then lay the next handful on the bed alo.igslde those just placed; 
then the next or fourth handful on top of it, and so on round the bed, each 
tier being composed of the tobacco from two sticks, laid double. In this man- 
ner the layers will all be alike, and there will be less liability to get uneven 
places in the bulk. The butts should be laid even, because if some are out 
and some m, they will let the air in and the lower leaves will be dried out. A 
Inilk four feet high is as high as is generally necessaiy; but if the entire house 
full i^ to come down, and you are prepared with a large force to strip, it will 
require two bulks to be laid in the driveway, and the first must be laid with 
reference to it. 

When the tobacco is in the bulk it must be covered on the tops and 
sides to hold the tobacco in case. Boards can be put up at the sides and also 
be laid on top. If more convenient, corn-stalks piled against the sides make 
a good covering. It is only important that the air be shut out. If you are 
obliged, for any cause, to take the tobacco down later in the season than has 
been intimated, it must be all stripped within ten days after taking down, or 
there wil^ be danger of its heating in the bulk, and that must not be permitted 
If the weather continues steadily cold after bulking down, as early as Decem- 
l)er or January, there will not be dr.nger of this heating for two weeks or 
more. The condition of the stalk, at the time of taking down, has much to do 
with the safe keeping in the bulk. If the stalk is well dried out there will be 
little danger, but if it is wet and soft, beware of it. The bulk must be smaller 
in that case, and it should be stripped as fast as it can be done. In addition 
to the danger of its heating, the wet stalks will soil and damage the leaves 
whenever t'loy come together, if allowed to remain long in bulk. With this 
Iniilding tobacco can go immediately into cases as fast as stripped, and there- 
fore I omit a plan, which is requisite in tobacco sheds, of banking stripped 
tobacco, to dry wet stems, before casing, as it will never be necessary. 

THE STRIPPING ROOM. 

The stripping room must be a close, warm room, where a steady fire can 

be kept, with room adjoining or near, in which to store the bundles. The 

liundles ought to be about ten inches square, and vvill vary in length as the 

tobacco is a large or small growth. They will ordinarily be about two feet to 



44 TOCAC • . — HOT,- GHOWV. CURi:!) VXD PREPARED FOR MARKET. 

thirty inches long. L'hot they may be uniform in size and for convenience, 
make a box ten inclie; s ^a ;re in>ide measure, and about three feet long of 
planed pine boards, and se':. it on legs about c.renty inches high, nail an end 
piece in one end and leavo the other end ope i: then fit a movable cover that 
will just go down to the bottom. Cat three gains on each upper edge of the 
side pieces of the box, into which you lay the string, that is to tie tlie bundle 
when it is com pie; o"". One string should be about five or six inches from 
the closed end of t re box. The other two should be placed so that the center 
string will come about round the center of the Imndle, and the thir:] five or 
six inches from the end. Provide a few lialls of wool twine and cut it into 
pieces long enough to go round such a bundle and tie on top. When you 
have determined just the length you require, cut up the twine and hang up 
convenient for use. Then provide some straw paper, usually kept l)y mer- 
chants for this purpose. Lay the strings in the bottom of the box, the ends 
hanging over the sides, and place a sheet of paper smoothly in the box and 
press the ends of the sheet over the side board, so that they will keep in place. 
You are now prepared to Ijundle the tobacco. 

Tobacco grovv^ers find in every crop they grow a diversity of quality in the 
respect of fineness of grain and purity, and evenness of color. Beyond all 
doubt, the first named quality it takes into the curing house with it. The 
latter are largely influenced by the treatment in the curing hous?. At this 
time, confining our attention to the matter of sorting the tobacco. I will first 
state my way of doing it, and then will speak of the general pracu.cc. 

The late cut tobacco will be of darker colors than the earlier tobacjo ; the 
curing will be slower, as the days are not so warm, and the night.; are colder. 
So far as it is pos,sible, without too much hindrance of the work, I keep the 
light and dark tobacco separate in the stripping room : a stalk oi; dark leaf 
found among the light, is handed to one who is stripping dark Icif, and the 
same with the light leaf found out of place. I have two strii.ping boxe?, 
which are being filled at the same time. Thus the bundles are dark and light, 
and the weight and a letter designating its color is placed on eich bundle. 
When once arranged and understood, this does not in the least delay the work. 
Taking a stalk in one hand, strip all the leaves from the bottom to the top, 
except trashy ground leaves, which should be thrown out. Whe:: ;', handful is 
gathered lay the leaves smoothly in the box, the butt end of the stems evenly 
against the end board. Place two or three handfuls o.^ leaves the same way, 
then turn the next two or three handfuls the butts the other way, and lap 
the leaves so far as that the bundle will be solid in the middle, otherwise it 
will dry out. Fill the box in this manner, frequently pressing it down with 
the hands. When full up to the top of the box, place the follower on top, and 
two persons put their weight on it. Tlien remove the follower and fill up. 
In this manner, a bale of 35 to 40 pounds will be formed. Tic it by carefully 
bringing the ends of the paper to a lap, being careful not to tear or break the 



TOBACCO HOW GROWN, CURED A^'D PREPARED FOR MARKET. 45 

paper, and tie a slipping knot, and the string can be used again. If it is in- 
tended to send the tobacco to a packing warehouse to be sorted and cased, 
then in that case the tillers ought not to go into the bundle, but be taken from 
the stalks, tied in small neat hands and immediately packed in cases of about 
300 pounds. The reason is if your tobacco has been kept in proper case, there 
is' nothing difficult about packing the fillers, but it should be done by a per- 
son who has had experience. If they are sent to the warehouse to be sorted 
and cased, the price you will get for them will about pay the cost of 
packing, leaving you nothing for your tobacco, and of course it would 
be better to leave it on the stalks; but you can put it in cases much 
cheaper than the warehouse ; and if the tobacco is to be sold in the bundle it 
will bring a better price, for the fillers being out, and generally they can be 
inchided in the sale. It will be better, respecting all such matters, for grow- 
ers in all sections of the country, to confer with buyers, and learn what they 
wish, and then put up their tobacco in conformity to it, remembering to do 
every part of the work neatly and well. In stripping, all the work should be 
cleaned up at night. Leave no tobacco on or off the stalks lying around 
loose and uncovered; but cover up everything snug, otherwise it will dry out 
and cause trouble. Having weighed your bundles, you will get the quantity 
you have, and provide the requisite number of cases, and have them in or 
near your sorting room under cover ; they should be of seasoned luml jer. On 
no account should tobacco be put in green or wet cases. 

Having my tobacco all in bundles, I engage experienced and careful women 
for sorters,and arrange the table for 6 sorts or grades, long wrappers, medium 
wrappers, short wrappers, seconds, binders and fillers. All the long and 
medium wrappers are gathered from that table and taken by an expert who 
sorts them into two grades of each kind, placing all long leaves of a like fine- 
ness and color in one grade, the coarser leaves in another, of same size leaf. 
The fillers, binders and seconds of all kinds of leaf, are tied in neat hands and 
kept separate. The grades then, of the tobacco, will be fine long wrappers, 
long wu-appers, fine medium wrappers, medium wrappers, short wrappers, 
seconds, binders, fillers. This grading into two additional grades will scarcely 
pay, in a small lot, of a ton or less, but in a large lot it will pay, being care- 
ful to let no defective leaf go into either of the five grades of long or medium 
tolmcco. The short wrappers of all qualities are handled together, and the 
same with the seconds ; the fine grading is confined to long and medium 
wrappers. In sorting a small lot of tobacco, it should be put in five grades, if 
the fillers are in the bundle, and place damaged leaves of wrappers in the 
seconds. In casing and sorting, observe the rule to have every kind of to- 
bacco in the sorting room put in its place and kept from drying. Leave no 
tobacco lying about on the tables. 

Where tobacco is taken down, in the perfect case, which is easily attained 
in this curing house, and the bundles have been kept in a proper store room, 



46 TOBACCO — HOW GROWN, CURED AND PREPARED FOR MARKET. 

and is assorted in a warm room, its case will remain simply perfect, and it 
ought to go at once into the pack. To bank it, as is much practiced, and 
leave till spring, is well where the stem is soft and requires drying out, in- 
deed, that is the only safe course; but it does not come out of this curing house 
in that condition. The leaf will break square off from the stalk, as the stems 
are cured, the same as the leaf, and there is no sap left in the stalk ; it has 
taken its place in the leaf, stem and veins, where it ought to be. The wrap- 
pers of all kinds should be kept in their respective cases by one used to pack- 
ing tobacco, and then put in the press each for a few minutes. The case of 
fine wrapjiers may be left in the press over night, all the other cases in pro- 
cess of being filled should l)e well covered to exclude the air. Put three hun- 
dred pounds in each case and nail the covers down, and store them in a cool, 
dry room, place two narrow strips of boards one inch thick on the floor, and 
place the cases on them, off a little from the wall of the building. This will 
give a place for the air to circulate all about the cases. 

If your crop has grown in an average good year and not too wet, espec- 
ially not cut during a rainy time, it will have a strong and elastic fiber and 
abundance of gum. Under those circumstances it will bear packing 300 
pounds in a case and come out with strong fiber and rich, glossy color ; but if 
the season of growth has been a wet one the growth will be rapid, the leaf 
thin, and the fiber will not be substantial nor strong. There will naturally 
be a great per cent, of water in the leaf, if added to this you are obliged to 
■cut your tobacco in a wet time, you must beware how you pack it. With 
those conditions there should not be more than 250 pounds at most be put in 
•a case, and the cases must be stored in a dry, well ventilated room, and not 
be piled top of eaich othev. 

The reason is the gum is put out and incorporated into the leaf only in a 
hot, dry time. Hot weather makes a rich, strong leaf full of gum; wet 
weather makes a weak, thin leaf poor in gum, and in such a leaf the gum is 
on the surface of the leaf, and is being constantly washed off'. If you put 
cases top of each other, lay like strips on them, to secure circulation between 
the tiers of cases. 

There is an important fact connected with this matter of putting tobacco 
-in case not generally understood. Growers sometimes take a quantity of to- 
bacco which happens to be in very high case, too high they think for safety, 
and so they case it with about an equal quantity of tobacco in a very low 
case, too low they fear to insure a good sweat, hoping thus to harmonize the 
differences and out of the average procure good case for the whole bulk ; but 
there is at work against him in such enterprise a very silent and subtle phil- 
osophical law which will doubly defeat all his plans. The e.xcessive moisture 
"in one part of the case by the power of capillary attraction will draw all of 
the moisture out of the low case tobacco and leave it dry, while the excess re- 
■ceiving such an addition will rot the portion in high case, presenting the 



TOBACCO HOW GROWN, CURED AND PREPARED FOR MARKET. 47 

strange spectacle of the dried tobacco lying amidst covered and surrounded 
by the wet damaged tobacco. Growers will, therefore, see the necessity for 
perfect case in their tobacco. In fact, tobacco too high or too low ought not 
to be taken down, but left on the bearings. Nothing can surpass the manner 
in which this building puts tobacco in case. It leaves nothing further to be 
desired. 

SELLING THE CROP. 
It is not an easy matter to fix general rules for the sale of the products of 
the farm, and tobacco has as many and as strange ups and downs as any other 
crop. It is easy to tell the grower that he must be wide-awake and obf>ervant 
of what is going on about him, and watch the market reports, and all of that; 
but notwithstanding vigilance to that extent, and more, the grower will often 
come to regret for selling too soon or holding too long. There is a rule, re- 
specting this business, that has much to commend it, and those who adopt it 
will have many compensations, whenever it happens that some neighbor has 
juade a little money by holding. Whenever a farmer has his crop ready for 
the market, whether it is special or a general crop, and there is a market with 
a fair price for his product, that is a good time to sell and deliver. It is true 
the market may advance. It is also true that it may decline. . When the 
buyers are in the country buying up a special crop at a fair price, that is also 
a good time to sell. The monej in your pocket will be handy to buy neces- 
--aries or pay bills. You will be free from danger of fire, shrinkage, and 
many peculiar drawbacks on a special crop. Interest can be stopi^ed on bank 
iiotes with the proceeds, and, what is worthy of consideration, a good name 
will be established for prompt payment of bills. All things seem to be in 
dined to go against a farmer, who speculates on his products. His jwlicy 
will lapse and then a fire wipes it all out, or he will be tempted to send it to 
a commission house, and if anything comes back it will not be satisfactory. 
A fair price and money on delivery of tbe goods is, all things oonsi'dered, the 
best. 



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